crude by rail

Appeals court chides STB for failures in Uinta Basin Railway project review

A three-person panel of judges determined that the Surface Transportation Board’s review of a planned project to construct an 85-mile-long rail line in the Uinta Basin in Utah that would carry crude oil was insufficient and lacked substance in part because it didn’t delve deeply into the project’s environmental ramifications. The decision puts the project into timeline limbo.

“Despite its protestations to the contrary, the Board cannot ignore and, in the past, has not ignored serious concerns...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/appeals-court-chides-stb-for-failures-in-uinta-basin-railway-project-review

Canadian government revises freight rail safety rules

A photograph of a train traveling through the snow.

The Canadian government has revised key provisions governing rail safety, focusing particularly on track inspections and the transport of hazardous materials during winter operations.

Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra on Monday announced changes to the Rules Respecting Key Trains and Key Routes, which are governed by the Railway Safety Act. 

Transport Canada, which approved the rules, said the modifications are a result of ministerial orders that were put into place in 2020. 

The revised rules:

  • R...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/canadian-government-revises-freight-rail-safety-rules

What Keystone pipeline cancellation means for crude-by-rail

A photograph of tank cars parked in a rail yard.

President Joe Biden’s revocation of the March 2019 permit enabling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will likely result in more crude-by-rail volumes, according to industry observers. But how much volumes will increase could largely depend on the price that heavy crude oil can fetch in the global market.

“The cancellation of the Keystone pipeline project was inevitable once the government changed. Despite its merits or drawbacks, it is now a deflated political football,” said Barry...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/what-keystone-pipeline-cancellation-means-for-crude-by-rail

News Alert: BNSF crude train derails in Washington state

A photograph of a BNSF train hauling tank cars.

BNSF (NYSE: BRK) is reporting that a train carrying crude oil detailed in Custer, Washington, on Tuesday.

The incident occurred around 11:40 a.m. PST. It involved a northbound train. BNSF confirmed that seven tank cars derailed and two were on fire.

In a tweet earlier Tuesday, the company had said potentially three to five tank cars derailed and a fire was reportedly occurring at the end of the train.

BNSF said it is working with local authorities and to mitigate the situation. It will investigate...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/news-alert-bnsf-crude-train-derails-in-washington-state

Social risk trumps financial risk for Canadian crude-by-rail

A photograph of tank cars parked in a rail yard.

Shipments of Canadian heavy crude oil via rail in 2021 are likely to be below the volume peaks that occurred at the beginning of 2020, credit ratings firm Moody’s Investors Service said in a Monday note related to Canadian crude-by-rail. This means that the Canadian railways could see decreased revenue coming from crude-by-rail in 2021.

That said, the social risks to haul crude-by-rail are more costly than the financial risks for Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) and CN (NYSE: CNI), Moody’s said....

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/social-risk-trumps-financial-risk-for-canadian-crude-by-rail

Drilling Deep: Trucking got big money from PPP; what will be the impact?

With the release of the identities of the biggest recipients of money under the Paycheck Protection Program, reviewing all the names of those who got money and figuring out how this will impact the industry’s operations is now the hot topic of discussion in trucking.

On this week’s Drilling Deep podcast, host John Kingston sits down with FreightWaves Director of Research Kevin Hill to talk about what they found in the enormous amount of data that the Small Business Administration released to the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/drilling-deep-trucking-got-big-money-from-ppp-what-will-be-the-impact

US law trumps Washington state’s crude-by-rail restrictions, federal agency finds

A photograph of a line of tank cars.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said late Monday that federal law preempts a state law in Washington that restricts the rail transport of crude oils that exceed a certain vapor pressure limit.

“PHMSA determined that Washington State’s vapor pressure requirement does not conform to U.S. Hazardous Materials Regulations and is an obstacle to accomplishing and carrying out Federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Law,” PHMSA said Monday. The decision is among the...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/us-law-trumps-washington-states-crude-by-rail-restrictions-federal-agency-finds

Departments of Transportation, Energy wary of setting new crude-by-rail rules

A photograph of the top of a tank car.

The U.S. Departments of Transportation and Energy have suggested in a report to Congress that regulation to define crude-by-rail movements using crude oil’s vapor pressure isn’t needed.

The issue of vapor pressure as a factor in potentially restricting crude-by-rail movement is a hot topic because the state of Washington enacted a law in 2019 setting vapor pressure limits, while other states have lobbied the federal government to pursue a similar mandate. Washington state’s crude-by-rail law...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/departments-of-transportation-energy-wary-of-setting-new-crude-by-rail-rules