Railroads use new oil train rule to fight transparency

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip: a poster in a Yahoo! group of which I am a member.

Railroads use new oil train rule to fight transparency

Economy
June 25, 2015

Highlights
Railroads may have found a new weapon in their fight to keep information about oil train shipments from the public: a federal rule that was supposed to increase transparency.



A CSX oil train moves east through Selkirk Yard near Albany, N.Y., on May 26, 2015. The Albany area has become a hub for crude by rail shipments as East Coast refineries have replaced imported oil with mid-continent sources. CSX and other railroads continue their push to keep routing and volume information about the shipments from the public.
McClatchy

By Curtis Tate - McClatchy Washington Bureau

Railroads may have found a new weapon in their fight to keep information about oil train shipments from the public: a federal rule that was supposed to increase transparency.

The U.S. Department of Transportation insists that its May 1 final rule on oil trains, which mostly addresses an outdated tank car design, does not support the railroads’ position, nor was it intended to leave anyone in the dark.

But in recent court filings in Maryland, two major oil haulers have cited the department’s new rule to justify their argument that no one except emergency responders should know what routes the trains use or how many travel through each state during a given week. ... Those details have been publicly available in most states for a year, though some sided with the railroads and refused to release them. The periodic reports have helped state and local officials with risk assessments, emergency planning and firefighter training.

The department’s rule was expected to expand the existing disclosure requirements. In its 395-page rule, the department acknowledged an overwhelming volume of public comments supporting more transparency. But ultimately, it offered the opposite.

[scscholar]

1. That picture is so ugly...

, so ugly.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. It needs more trains.

Tracks, locomotives, turntables, roundhouses, telegraph lines, lots of smoke from steam, locomotives, signals. Also towers, tower operators, gandy dancers, car knockers, brakemen, switchmen, engineers. And so forth.