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"Iowa's Pipeline Safety Record Spotty" [1]

"As a Texas energy company seeks approval for its plan to build a 1,100-mile pipeline carrying North Dakota crude oil across 17 Iowa counties, documents show the state's pipeline safety record has been less than spotless."

Chemicals [2]
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Pollution [5]
Transportation [6]
Public [7]
Great Plains (IA KS ND NE MO SD) [8]
Source: Des Moines Register [9], 09/08/2014
  • Read more about "Iowa's Pipeline Safety Record Spotty" [1]

Govt Seeks Trains To Haul Radioactive Waste, Despite Lack of Dumps [10]

"The U.S. government is looking for trains to haul radioactive waste from nuclear power plants to disposal sites. Too bad those trains have nowhere to go."

Nuclear Power & Radiation [11]
Transportation [6]
Waste [12]
Public [7]
National (U.S.) [13]
Source: AP [14], 09/04/2014
  • Read more about Govt Seeks Trains To Haul Radioactive Waste, Despite Lack of Dumps [10]

"Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil" [15]

"FARGO, N.D. — The furious pace of energy exploration in North Dakota is creating a crisis for farmers whose grain shipments have been held up by a vast new movement of oil by rail, leading to millions of dollars in agricultural losses and slower production for breakfast cereal giants like General Mills."

Agriculture [16]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Transportation [6]
Public [7]
National (U.S.) [13]
Source: , 08/26/2014
  • Read more about "Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil" [15]

States Hide Safety Failures Over Routing Data on Crude Oil Trains [17]

Just over a year after an oil-train explosion in Quebec killed 47 people, information on the threats oil trains present to public safety is starting to seep through a long blackout in which railroads convinced pliable federal regulators that the public was better off not knowing. Journalists from the AP and McClatchy FOIA'd information loose from Amtrak on Maryland and Pennsylvania, two of the states that have been reluctant to disclose.

SEJ Publication Types: 
WatchDog TipSheet [18]
Topics on the Beat: 
Energy & Fuel [4]
Laws & Regulations [19]
Transportation [6]
Region: 
National (U.S.) [13]
Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV) [20]
Visibility: 
Public [7]
  • Read more about States Hide Safety Failures Over Routing Data on Crude Oil Trains [17]

"Amtrak Provides Crude Oil Train Details States Had Withheld" [21]

"WASHINGTON -- Two loaded and two empty crude oil trains operate daily over Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in Maryland and Delaware, according a document submitted by the passenger railroad in response to a Freedom of Information Act request."

Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Journalism & Media [22]
Transportation [6]
Public [7]
National (U.S.) [13]
Source: McClatchy [23], 08/12/2014
  • Read more about "Amtrak Provides Crude Oil Train Details States Had Withheld" [21]

"Ships To Slow Down Off California To Save Whales And Cut Pollution" [24]

"A program being launched off the California coast this summer will tackle two environmental problems posed by thousands of cargo ships that ferry goods to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach each year: Not only are the hulking vessels major sources of air pollution, their shipping lanes overlap with a prime feeding area for migrating blue whales off Santa Barbara."

Transportation [6]
Water & Oceans [25]
Wildlife [26]
Public [7]
California [27]
Source: LA Times [28], 08/08/2014
  • Read more about "Ships To Slow Down Off California To Save Whales And Cut Pollution" [24]

Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [29]

Here are some recent explainers of interest to environmental journalists from the CRS, which Congress does not allow to be released to the taxpaying public who paid for them. The WatchDog thanks those who leaked them and the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy for publishing them.

SEJ Publication Types: 
WatchDog TipSheet [18]
Topics on the Beat: 
Agriculture [16]
Chemicals [2]
Climate Change [30]
Economy & Business [31]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Laws & Regulations [19]
Natural Resources [32]
People & Population [33]
Policy [34]
Pollution [5]
Transportation [6]
Water & Oceans [25]
Visibility: 
Public [7]
  • Read more about Fresh Secret Reports from the Congressional Research Service [29]

"U.S. Proposes Faster Changes in Oil Trains" [35]

"Federal regulators said on Wednesday that they would require railroads and oil shippers to use stronger tank cars to transport crude oil within two years."

Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Laws & Regulations [19]
Transportation [6]
Public [7]
National (U.S.) [13]
Source: NY Times [36], 07/24/2014
  • Read more about "U.S. Proposes Faster Changes in Oil Trains" [35]

"Speed of Oil Tank Cars ‘An Issue': DOT Secretary" [37]

"The speed of rail tank cars used in crude-by-rail shipments 'is an issue' that the Transportation Department may address in an upcoming safety rule, Secretary Anthony Foxx said."

Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Transportation [6]
Public [7]
National (U.S.) [13]
Source: Bloomberg BNA [38], 07/23/2014
  • Read more about "Speed of Oil Tank Cars ‘An Issue': DOT Secretary" [37]

Many States Hide Rail Hazmat Threats From Public at Companies' Behest [39]

It's not like you can't figure these things out. Trains full of explosive crude oil, for example, may be obvious as a string of 100-odd identical black tankers rolls through populated areas. The number on the DOT-required diamond-shaped flammability placard on each car probably has the number 1257 on it. But it's not just crude oil that's an issue.

SEJ Publication Types: 
WatchDog TipSheet [18]
Topics on the Beat: 
Disasters [3]
Energy & Fuel [4]
Transportation [6]
Visibility: 
Public [7]
  • Read more about Many States Hide Rail Hazmat Threats From Public at Companies' Behest [39]

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Source URL:https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=136

Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/headlines/iowas-pipeline-safety-record-spotty [2] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/chemicals/toxics [3] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/disaster [4] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/energy [5] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/pollution [6] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation [7] https://www.sej.org/taxonomy/term/81 [8] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/great-plains [9] http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2014/09/07/iowa-pipeline-safety-spotty-records-large-scale-disasters-spills-since-bakken-oil-propane-natural-gas-anhydrous-ammonia/15230791/ [10] https://www.sej.org/headlines/govt-seeks-trains-haul-radioactive-waste-despite-lack-dumps [11] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/nuclear-power/radiation [12] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/waste [13] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national [14] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/31/radioactive-trains_n_5744084.html?utm_hp_ref=green [15] https://www.sej.org/headlines/grain-piles-waiting-ride-trains-move-north-dakota-oil [16] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/agriculture [17] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/states-hide-safety-failures-over-routing-data-crude-oil-trains [18] https://www.sej.org/category/sej-publication/watchdog-tipsheet [19] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/laws [20] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/mid-atlantic [21] https://www.sej.org/headlines/amtrak-provides-crude-oil-train-details-states-had-withheld [22] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/journalism/media [23] http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/04/4271969/amtrak-provides-crude-oil-train.html [24] https://www.sej.org/headlines/ships-slow-down-california-save-whales-and-cut-pollution [25] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/water [26] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/wildlife [27] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/california [28] http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ships-slow-down-whales-pollution-20140805-story.html [29] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/fresh-secret-reports-congressional-research-service [30] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/climate-change [31] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/business [32] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/land [33] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/people-population [34] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/policy [35] https://www.sej.org/headlines/us-proposes-faster-changes-oil-trains [36] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/business/government-proposes-faster-changes-in-rail-tank-cars.html?ref=energy-environment [37] https://www.sej.org/headlines/speed-oil-tank-cars-%E2%80%98-issue-dot-secretary [38] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-22/speed-of-oil-tank-cars-an-issue-dot-secretary.html [39] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/many-states-hide-rail-hazmat-threats-public-companies-behest [40] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=135 [41] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=132 [42] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=133 [43] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=134 [44] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=137 [45] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=138 [46] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=139 [47] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=140 [48] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation?page=156