I worry with dread every time I see a long line of oil tankers rolling through downtown Whitefish and around the lake. Those tankers (designed in the 1960s to carry corn syrup and less-volatile liquids) are responsible for four recent deadly accidents in the U.S. and Canada. One rail explosion alone killed 47 people in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic in 2013. The six-year delay of the Keystone XL pipeline has not stopped Canadian oil from flowing, instead it is being transported by rail and with ironic (albeit horrible) consequences.
Montana Sen. Steve Daines said on a recent Fox News interview that the Keystone XL pipeline is “environmentally sound” and would actually cut carbon emissions by shifting Canadian and North Dakota oil transportation away from rail.
My reaction to this is, “Great! Whatever it takes to get those tankers away from our community.” But railroad revenue from transporting crude oil between 2008 and 2013 rose from $25.8 million to $2.15 billion! With that kind of money, I don’t expect the rail industry to loosen its grip on transporting crude oil, even if Keystone XL gets built.
The very least these industries can do is invest some of their generous profits back into upgrading thousands of outdated tankers and infrastructure. Unfortunately rail and oil lobbyists have dug in their heels hard to fight against the very expensive upgrades and safety regulations put in place after those accidents.
I pray Daines has a contingency plan to protect Montanans who work and live in proximity to the rails and pipelines should the worst happen. Employment is important but so is safety, and those two things together mean more jobs. Daines must stand up for Montanans and push to get our 100-year-old rail infrastructure safely updated, these dangerous tankers out of our community, or at the very least upgraded, so they don’t destroy our lakes, torch our towns and kill our loved ones.
Jerry McDonald
Whitefish