"SPOKANE, Wash. — Numerous speakers told a state Senate committee Tuesday that they oppose the rapid increase in railcars carrying crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota and Montana through the state.

The Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications Committee met in Spokane, a major railroad hub for the northern United States, to take testimony on a bill that seeks to improve the safety of those oil shipments.

But nearly all the members of the public who spoke attacked the measure as too friendly to the oil and railroad industries."

Nicholas K. Geranios reports for the Associated Press June 18, 2014. [2]