ALL THE MORE REASON TO ALLOW KEYSTONE XL

 Submitted by: Nancy Battle

A bomb train scheduled for all our towns

With Keystone XL and other pipelines blocked, Big Oil is moving more and more tar sands oil by train, leading to a series of deadly accidents. Tell President Obama and his team that it’s time to end "bomb train" shipments of crude oil.

Nancy,

One year ago, a train carrying crude oil exploded in the Canadian town of Lac Megantic, killing 47 people and blowing up an entire town. Similar accidents have happened since then in North Dakota and Alabama. Just a few weeks ago, another accident in Virginia set the James River on fire and threatened the drinking water source for millions of people and animals.¹


These aren't isolated incidents. They're a pattern of disasters that has seen more oil spilled in the last 18 months than in previous 40 years combined - and earned trains carrying crude oil a dirty nickname: "Bomb Trains."² There's only one real solution that works for the planet: to leave the Tar Sands and other extreme oil it in the ground. So just like we're working to shut down Keystone XL, we need to shut down the bomb trains to stop the dirtiest oil on the planet from getting out.
Click here to tell President Obama and Secretary Foxx that it’s time to ban the bomb trains and protect the planet.


Fracked Bakken oil and the tar sands have created a boom in extreme energy development across the U.S. and Canada. But this is not your grandparents' oil we’re talking about. Bakken crude is more flammable than heavier oils, hence the term "bomb trains."³ And tar sands oil has been compared to "hot, toxic, liquid sandpaper" by experts.⁴
These more combustible, corrosive, and inherently dangerous oil products are being shipped in aging and inadequate rail cars and pipelines, leading to accident after accident.

If you've had enough of dangerous, extreme oil products being shipped through our towns and fragile ecosystems, sign here to tell President Obama's team to ban these bomb trains for good.

The problem for fracking and drilling companies is that these new extreme oil deposits are way out in the plains of Alberta or North Dakota. To get this hard-to-find, and hard-to-extract oil to market, they need to ship it to refineries and export facilities near the coasts. The Lynchburg bomb train was headed to one such facility in Virginia. The Keystone XL pipeline is a shortcut from Canada to the Gulf Coast refineries. We need to shut down their transportation, so we can keep this oil in the ground where it belongs.
Click here to Tell Secretary Foxx and his boss, President Obama, that it’s time to ban the shipment of extreme oil by train.
Thanks,

Drew Hudson, and the team at Environmental Action

PS - People are gathering at local rallies and events all over America this week to show up, as well as speak up, against bomb trains. If you want to find a local event near you, or start your own, click here to get started!
1 Steve Horn, Explosive Virginia Train Carried Fracked Bakken Oil, Headed to Potential Export Facility, Desmog Blog, April 30, 2014
2 Curtis Tate, More oil spilled from trains in 2013 than in previous 4 decades, federal data show, McClatchy News Service, January 20, 2014
3 The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Safety Alert, January 2, 2014
4 The Tar Sands Solutions Network, Spills and Leaks