Does the rail explosion fuel pipeline plans? | Washington Post

The railroad put the small lakeside town of Lac-M?gantic on the map. And over the weekend, the railroad wiped part of the town off the map.

Founded in 1884 when the Canadian Pacific Railway began construction on the final leg of track linking Montreal and the Port of Saint John in New Brunswick, Lac-M?gantic was shaken Saturday when an oil-laden train bound for a Saint John refinery derailed and exploded, leaving at least 13 dead and dozens unaccounted for.

The Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway train, with 72 cars of crude oil from North Dakota?s Bakken basin, was left unattended by its conductor and rolled downhill, blowing a hole in downtown Lac-M?gantic, likened to ?a war zone? by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The dead found Monday were burned beyond recognition, officials said.

The explosion near the border of Maine also reverberated in the rest of Canada and the United States, where people are hotly debating what mode of transportation is safest and most economical for carrying the steadily growing output of crude oil from North Dakota and northern Alberta?s oil sands. And it reignited calls for tougher standards for ethanol and crude oil tank cars.

U.S. railroads are already carrying more than 1 million barrels of crude oil a day, bolstered by new shale-oil boom regions such as North Dakota and Texas. Proponents of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline may now be bolstered by arguing that pipelines are safer and more fuel-efficient than trains.

?We?ve seen over and over that derailments are not a matter of if but when,? said Brett VandenHeuvel of Columbia Riverkeeper, part of a nongovernmental network devoted to protecting waterways. ?We know a train derails, and when it is carrying hazardous cargo, it?s a threat to our public safety, our economy and our environment.?

VandenHeuvel, who has worked to stop coal, liquefied natural gas and oil export plans, is opposing a proposal by refiner Tesoro to ship 380,000 barrels a day of oil by rail for export from a terminal in the port of Vancouver, Wash. Port officials have scheduled a vote on the project for July 23.

While most environmental and industry groups refrained from doing more than offering condolences to the people of Lac-
M?gantic, the implications could be profound.

The State Department said in its recent environmental impact statement that if a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is denied, oil producers would simply send their product to markets via railroads. The pipeline would carry oil from northern Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. As a result, the State Department reasoned, blocking the pipeline would have no beneficial impact on greenhouse gas emissions because the oil sands would be developed anyway.

A heightened sense of danger about rail cuts both ways in the Keystone debate. On the one hand, climate activists can argue that the dangers of rail make it a less viable alternative and strengthen their argument that denying a permit for Keystone could stop some oil-sands development.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2013/07/08/82e8e968-e807-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html?wprss=rss_energy-environment

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