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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Senators devise plan to speed oil rail car safety upgrades

Matthew Brown Associated Press

BILLINGS – U.S. senators from six states on Thursday proposed that the government charge companies a special fee to ship oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids in older railroad tank cars that have been involved in fiery explosions.

The fee would start at $175 and increase to $1,400 per car by 2018. It would raise an estimated $600 million to train first responders, clean up spills and relocate rail tracks around populated areas.

The proposal would be paired with tax breaks for upgrades to newer tank cars, so they can better withstand derailments. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon told the Associated Press the intent is to offer “market-based” incentives for companies to improve safety.

“The idea is to speed up the phase-out of older tank cars,” Wyden said. He added it “allows us to move in a much faster and more aggressive fashion to make oil by rail transportation safer.”

On Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Canada’s Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt are set to announce new rules calling for flammable liquid tank cars to be retrofitted or replaced. The rules could affect up to 155,000 tank cars in the U.S.

But industry representatives have said it could take more than a decade to get that work done – far longer than safety officials want.

Rail shipments of oil and ethanol soared over the past decade following huge increases in domestic production, and the trains now pass regularly through hundreds of cities and towns. Each tank car carries roughly 30,000 gallons of fuel.