Exploding Oil Trains Push U.S. States to Draw Up Response Plans
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States from California to Maine are hiring rail inspectors and oil-spill experts as they draw up emergency plans after trains carrying crude derailed and burst into fireballs, including a crash in Quebec that killed 47.
In California, Governor Jerry Brown is proposing a 15 percent funding boost for his response agency. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last week ordered five departments to create spill disaster plans and wants to double the number of train inspectors. The July derailment in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic was followed in December by BNSF Railway Co.’s 400,000-gallon explosion in North Dakota.