A lot more oil is being produced by us. That oil has to be moved to a refinery. Some is moved via pipelines, some is moved by rail. Researchers estimate that trains are three and a half times as likely as pipelines to suffer safety lapses.The oil being produced in North Dakota is now our largest source and it is being shipped by rail; this year carloads of crude are up 50 percent from last.
Since 2012, there have been eight major accidents involving trains carrying crude in North America. The worst killed 47 people and burnt down a quarter of a town in Canada. There have been a lot more safety incidents, most of them minor. The data shows such incidents in more than 250 municipalities over the last four years.
One of the major risk factors in shipping by rail is the vulnerability of the DOT-111 tank cars in which much of the oil is moved. The government has known of this vulnerability for years, but has really not done anything truly serious and effective about it. You can't blame the railroads themselves for the problem, as most of the shipping is done by a separate company focused on shipping.
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