EARTHblog » Aaron Mintzes
Pepsi Cans on Wheels: Stopping Explosive Oil Trains
By Aaron Mintzes
August 21, 2014
Some communities do not even know that mile long 100-car unit trains hauling explosive crude oil pass through their neighborhoods until they hear the rumbling of the tracks. Last summer, one of these trains derailed in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Additional tragedies, including one in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia last April, spotlight the enormous danger posed by what some now call “Bomb Trains”. Driven by the expansion of fracking for oil, especially in North Dakota, these rolling hazardous dangers carrying their climate-warming fossil fuels spilt more flammable crude oil last year than in the previous forty years according to Federal Railroad Administration records.
Tagged with: bakken, oil trains, crude by rail, federal railroad administration, phmsa
GAO Calls Out EPA: Step Up on Frackquakes!
By Aaron Mintzes
August 4, 2014
Last week the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released their critique of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation of oil and gas waste injection wells. The GAO found that EPA does not perform sufficient oversight and they inconsistently evaluate how states regulate this activity. Even when EPA wants to conduct oversight, GAO noted that EPA sometimes couldn’t because they never incorporated many state rules in to their federal regulations.
Tagged with: enforcement, earthquakes, gao, injection wells, uic calls ii, frackquakes
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