HELL NO! to Kinder-Gentler Bomb Trains! Did anyone else get an email from Washington Environmental Council about oil train safety legislation? Did it give you a creepy sensation too? Id suggest that we who have been on the forefront of protecting the Salish Sea look carefully before jumping on this Big Green bandwagon: From wecprotects.org/legislation/ : Oil Transportation Safety Now [BC note - oh really? How you gonna do that?] The risk of a spill or disaster from crude oil is growing here in Washington, but our laws were crafted in the 1970s and need to be updated to reflect reality. From highly volatile Bakken crude oil to toxic tar sands, the risks to our communities and waterways are real. Our Priority is going to ensure Washington is safer by: - Giving the public information on how oil is moving through our communities [BC Note: this does nothing to prevent a derailment and explosion or spill] - Authorizing common sense oil spill prevention measures Ensuring companies carrying oil, not taxpayers, pay for cleaning up all oil spills [BC Note: Really?! How do you quantify the killing of a river delta or the Puget Sound? Not to mention lives of people or communities destroyed by an exploding train?] - Providing funding to modernize our system that safeguards communities and waterways [BC Note: Who pays for this? How much does it cost to guarantee our and our environments safety? And then what about all the tankers this then encourages exporting through the Salish Sea? NO FN WAY!] [BC Note: Oh, and what about climate impacts of facilitating export of Bakken crude and tar sands oil? Oh, and what about impacts on communities where this extraction takes place? Oh, and what about the bogging down of rail capacity with this giant fossil fuel commodity - when we need trains to start moving people and freight that isnt a threat to humanity and the planet that sustains us? Id say, back to the drawing board WEC.] Read more about Oil Transportation Safety Now here: wecprotects.org/oil-transportation-safety-now/at_download/file
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 01:45:34 +0000