Train Derailments Another of Fracking’s Problems

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http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-brasch/53831/train-derailments-another-of-fracking-s-problems

Train Derailments Another of Fracking’s Problems
Energy Policy | Environmental Policy
by Walter Brasch | January 24, 2014 - 10:42am

The derailment of a 101-car CSX freight train on a bridge in a densely-populated part of Philadelphia this past week should be yet another warning to politicians who have become cheerleaders for oil and gas fracking.

The train had been hauling crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. A severe snow storm delayed by several days removing the derailed cars and 80,000 gallons of crude oil from the decades-old bridge over I-76 and the Schuylkill River, which flows into the Delaware River. Oil and gas companies using horizontal fracking have made the Bakken the most productive oil shale in the country.

Numerous articles and scientific research studies have already shown the link between horizontal fracking and health and environmental problems. But the transportation of shale oil and gas by trains, trucks, and pipelines poses more immediate threats.

About 92,000 of the 106,000 tanker cars currently in service were built before 2011 when stricter regulations mandated new design. The older cars (DOT-111) have an “inadequate design” and are susceptible to leaks and explosions in derailments, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.