Would you rather have a pipeline spill or a train derailment?

[cali]

10. Does Canada train blast show danger of oil transport in US?

<snip>

Across the border in Maine, the tragedy is likely to turn up the volume on an existing debate about the safety of shipping crude oil through the state from Canada’s western petroleum region to New Brunswick’s coastal refineries.

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would move much of this heavy oil from Canada south through the US to Texas. Its backers say this means of transportation is safer than is freight transport. But it has been blocked, for now, by environmental concerns.

That means railroads continue to carry the bulk of this oil cargo. But Maine environmentalists aren’t happy about this, either. On June 27 six members of the protest group “350 Maine” were arrested in the south-central town of Fairfield for blocking railroad tracks with signs calling to “Stop Fracked Oil”.

Oil trains have been crossing Maine since May, 2012, according to the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. Some have been involved in accidents that barely avoided environmental catastrophe.

<snip>

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0707/Does-Canada-train-blast-show-danger-of-oil-transport-in-US