Most recent update - 8/6/2014
8/6/2014 State officials decided Wednesday a public hearing is in order to determine if any new regulations may be necessary in ensuring the safety of crude oil shipped by rail from North Dakota. more 7/28/2014 Canada quietly issued new details on rail safety regulation last week that included specifications for the next generation of tank cars that are tougher than some of the options proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday. more 7/27/2014 Railroad documents released by the state Department of Public Safety show about 50 trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota are passing through Minnesota each week, most traveling along the Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway line between Moorhead and the Twin Cities. more 7/26/2014 Railroad crews have reopened tracks where an oil train derailed early Thursday in Seattle, but work continues on three damaged tanker cars. more
7/23/2014 New proposed U.S. Department of Transportation regulations call for the testing of Bakken crude and better rail cars to ship it in. The DOT opened proposed oil-by-rail rules up for public comment Wednesday. The new rules are intended to improve the safe transportation of large quantities of flammable materials by rail. more
7/15/2014 Two environmental groups are asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to immediately ban shipments of volatile crude oil in older railroad tank cars, citing recent explosive oil train wrecks and the department's own findings that those accidents pose an "imminent hazard." more7/14/2014 A string of fiery train derailments across the country has triggered a high-stakes but behind-the-scenes campaign to shape how the government responds to calls for tighter safety rules. more 7/1/2014 Union Pacific railroad is no longer sending cars filled with especially volatile crude oil through the city of St. Louis, Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told a group of concerned residents at a community meeting at the Carondelet Park Recreation Complex. more 6/28/2014 A North Dakota regulator says the state should employ its own railroad safety inspectors to help the federal government monitor crude oil shipments coming from the state's Bakken oil play. more 6/25/2014 Disclosures from railroads about volatile oil shipments from the Northern Plains show dozens of the trains passing weekly through Illinois and the Midwest and up to 19 a week reaching Washington state on the West Coast. more 6/18/2014 Speakers in Spokane, Wash. told a state Senate committee Tuesday that they oppose the rapid increase in rail cars carrying crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota and Montana through the state. more 6/17/2014 As politicians debate the dangers of a massive increase in oil carried by rail in North America, railroads and energy producers are considering the same for natural gas. more 6/5/2014 U.S. railroads forced to turn over details of their volatile crude oil shipments are asking states to sign agreements not to disclose the information. But some states are refusing, saying Thursday that the information shouldn't be kept from the public. more 6/3/2014 Oil industry studies concluding that Bakken crude oil is safe to move by rail under existing standards may underestimate the dangers of the fuel and should not be the last word, U.S. lawmakers and industry officials said on Monday. more 5/28/2014 Residents and officials in towns along North America's new oil-by-rail corridors reportedly want to limit or halt the traffic, fearful that existing precautions will not prevent deadly blasts, air and waterway pollution, or nuisances including nasty odors. more 5/20/2014 In a presentation made at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck today the central region director for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said improved communication and compliance with federal regulations for transporting crude oil are necessary for the oil to be continued to be moved safely. more 5/20/2014 Oil industry representatives are pushing back against tougher rules for rail cars carrying crude despite a string of fiery accidents and insisting that oil shipped by train from the Northern Plains is no more dangerous than some other cargoes. more 5/15/2014 America’s smaller railroads lack the capability to offer safety training in the shipment of crude oil and ethanol, and two top Senate appropriators asked federal regulators to fund those efforts, according to a report published today. more 5/15/2014 A study funded by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the trade group for the country's refiners, concluded that crude oil shipped from the Bakken play is being handled properly. more 5/13/2014 Regulators reportedly are considering ways to make Bakken crude safer to ship including a requirement that natural gas liquids be stripped from the crude prior to transporting it. more 5/9/2014 The main railroad moving crude oil out of the rich Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana said a new federal emergency order on rail shipments will not affect shipments. more 5/7/2014 U.S. companies moving crude oil via rail must tell state officials when a cargo is moving across their regions, the U.S. Transportation Secretary said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing today. more 4/25/2014 The head of the U.S. Department of Transportation said yesterday during his visit to Casselton in eastern North Dakota that his office plans next week to outline options for enhancing tank car standards. Casselton was the site of a December oil train derailment. more 4/23/2014 Efforts to improve rail safety reportedly are being hampered by a lack of cooperation among the key players. The oil industry and the rail industry are refusing to share data about the characteristics of oil being shipped and the basis for recommendations for safer tanker cars, respectively, according to a report out today. more 4/23/2014 Canada's Minister of Transport today announced actions to address the Transportation Safety Board of Canada's initial recommendations regarding the ongoing investigation into the Lac-Mégantic train derailment. more 4/23/2014 The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded its forum titled, "Rail Safety: Transportation of Crude Oil and Ethanol" today. The two-day event addressed rail safety, specific to the transportation of crude oil and ethanol more
According to a new EnergyWire report, rail shippers are not required to submit emergency response plans to the Federal Railroad Administration for monitoring and review unless they use tank cars with a capacity of 42,000 gallons or more. The report points out there currently are no tankers of that size hauling crude and that just five such cars exist nationwide. Shippers using smaller tankers are required to maintain basic emergency response plans in their own files, but, according to the report, the government does not review or monitor those plans. more
The U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx plans to meet this week with Casselton officials to discuss the oil train derailment that occurred near the eastern North Dakota community last December. Foxx is slated to meet with local leaders on Thursday and provide an update on efforts to improve rail safety. moreA report in the StarTribune highlights the possible effect of recent legislation enacted in Canada that imposes surcharges on rail shippers using older tank cars to transport crude oil. Official notes from a March 19 meeting with the administrator and top officials of the U.S. Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration suggest that some in the rail industry believe the Canadian policy will lead Canadian shippers to purchase newer, reinforced tankers and send the older cars to the U.S. where similar legislation governing tank cars has not yet been enacted. more  |
| Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Crude Oil Export Options Source: North Dakota Pipeline Authority   Source: North Dakota Pipeline Authority  |
North Dakota rail loading facilities map
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