White House mulled, then balked at curbing explosive gas on oil trains

Continental Energy

05/03/2015 22:34

(Adds detail of derailment in paragraph 10; Transportation 
Department comment in paragraph 18-21) 
    By Patrick Rucker 
    WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The Obama administration 
weighed national standards to control explosive gas in oil 
trains last year but rejected the move, deciding instead to 
leave new rules to North Dakota, where much of the fuel 
originates. 
    Current and former administration officials told Reuters 
they were unsure if they had the power to force the energy 
industry to drain volatile gas from crude oil originating in 
North Dakota's fields. 
    Instead, they opted to back North Dakota's effort to remove 
the cocktail of explosive gas - known in the industry as 'light 
ends' - and rely on the state to contain the risk. 
    North Dakota's regulations come into force next month. 
    The administration's internal debate shows that concern 
about the risks associated with oil trains reached the upper 
level of the White House. But the administration balked at 
addressing the problem in new regulations governing crude oil 
trains that it is preparing to introduce this spring. 
    When Transportation Department and White House officials 
convened on this issue last summer, the administration decided 
to back North Dakota's plan to limit vapor pressure - a measure 
that was just taking shape at the time. 
    "The Department of Transportation supported North Dakota on 
treatment of crude oil in the field," a White House official 
told Reuters. 
    But a growing number of safety advocates say relying on 
North Dakota is not insufficient to regulate a product that is 
hauled thousands of miles of track and across many state lines. 
    "These trains are going all across the country so it 
absolutely has to be the feds who are in charge," said Karen 
Darch, mayor of Barrington, Illinois, where several oil and 
ethanol trains pass through her town weekly. 
    On Thursday afternoon, a BNSF oil train delivery including 
more than 100 tanker cars derailed in Illinois, according to 
local media. 
    Last summer, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx took his 
concerns about Bakken fuel to the White House and sought advice 
on what to do about the danger of light ends, according to 
sources familiar with the meeting who were not authorized to 
speak publicly about the matter.  
    By then, Foxx had spent more than 12 months weighing safety 
measures that would prevent oil train derailments from becoming 
fiery disasters like the 2013 Lac Megantic tragedy in Canada in 
which 47 people were killed by a runaway Bakken train delivery. 
    The Transportation Department was warning that Bakken fuel 
was uncommonly volatile and explosion-prone. Foxx's agency 
conceived an oil train safety plan in July with an array of 
measures that aimed to make sure oil train cargo moved safely on 
the tracks. 
    Tankers would have toughened shells. Oil train deliveries 
would slow down. Advanced braking systems would be adopted. 
    But the rule would do nothing to limit volatile gas. 
    Foxx brought his concerns about the unresolved issue of 
dangerous gas, commonly measured as vapor pressure, and his 
agency's limited power to curtail the problem to President 
Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough. The 
administration decided to just let the existing oil train safety 
plan take root. 
    "Before the meeting, the department had already identified 
issues with the characteristics of the crude oil, including 
vapor pressure, and had developed potential strategies related 
to the overall improvement and safety of the transport of the 
product and how the industry could treat it," the White House 
official said. 
    Suzanne Emmerling, spokeswoman for the Transportation 
Department, said on Thursday "neither the White House or anyone 
in any department has ever balked at improving the safety of 
this product in any way." 
    "The Department looked closely at every aspect of the 
transportation of flammable products by rail, including vapor 
pressure, tank cars, and rail operations, and ultimately 
submitted a rule that we believe will raise the bar on the safe 
transport of this product." 
    Emmerling declined to comment on why the Transportation 
Department did not include vapor pressure controls in its oil 
train proposal last year. 
    Officials may not comment on pending rules, she said, noting 
that the final rule may contain elements not included in the 
draft. 
    That approach is not good enough for many critics. 
    New York Senator Charles Schumer warned this week that oil 
train "disasters" could continue "until the stability of the 
crude being loaded into the tank cars themselves is improved." 
    Of the roughly 1.2 million barrels of crude oil produced in 
North Dakota daily, more than 60 percent of that fuel reaches 
refineries by rail, typically in 100-tanker unit trains that can 
stretch a mile long. 
    A large share of that fuel moves through New York on the way 
to refineries in the mid-Atlantic. 
    In a letter to Secretary Foxx and Energy Secretary Ernest 
Moniz, Schumer encouraged the officials "to work together to 
develop new regulations that would require the stabilization of 
crude oil prior to shipment." 
    An Energy Department official said the agency is in the 
early stages of developing a report on Bakken crude dangers that 
"may be of use to the Department of Transportation, which has 
regulatory authority over the transport of crude oil." 
 
 (Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Additional reporting by Ernest 
Scheyder; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Richard Chang) 
 ((patrick.rucker@thomsonreuters.com; +202 354 5858; Reuters 
Messaging: patrick.rucker.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: USA TRAIN/VAPORS