Every year during the first weeks of July, thousands of people across North America participate in the Stop Oil Trains week of action to commemorate the 47 people who tragically lost their lives in Lac Megantic, Quebec when a runaway oil train derailed and exploded. This July 6 marks the third
Oil train safety advocates in Baltimore received disappointing news last week.
In February, Baltimore oil trains activists gathered to learn about a deadly accident in Lac-Mégantic three years ago. Railroad Workers United representative Fritz Edler joined a resident of Lac-Mégantic to explain how policy decisions, like staffing that train with only one crew member, led to the train derailment and explosion in the middle of that small town.
This 100+-year-old tunnel runs 1.4 miles from Howard Street to Mt Royal Ave, surfacing between the campuses of the University of Baltimore and MICA. And for the past five years, trains carrying crude oil from North Dakota have been passing through the tunnel on their way to refineries and export terminals in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This puts hundreds of thousands of Baltimore residents in danger on their way.
Kern County is the "belly of the beast" for the California's oil and gas industry, where almost 80 percent of the state's oil is produced. It’s where the vast majority of the environmental and health fallout is.
For some reason, California STILL allows oil and gas companies to dump their toxic wastewater in open and unlined pits.
