Rising Tide Against Oil Trains and Oil Terminals

Railroads are transporting highly volatile oil from the North Dakota oil shale fields across the country to refineries. Most, if not all, of the tanker cars holding the oil are not safe. There have been a number of huge explosions, some with fatalities.  There is an effort in the Pacific Northwest, organized by risingtide.org, to try to stop these trains. Not only do they pose a huge danger to people, oil spills could cause unrepairable damage to the Columbia River and its treasure of salmon breeding grounds.

And, of course, there is the overriding issue of the expansion of the use of fossil fuels and the huge role they play in rising Earth temperatures and climate change. See my review of This Changes Everything. And the oil is extracted through fracking, which has its own issues with the environment and water supplies.

The economic arguments for the oil refineries on the West Coast and the transport of oil in tens of thousands of unsafe oil tank cars do not begin to justify the risks involved to people and the environment.

For more information on the Rising Tide organization's efforts to stop the oil trains and the oil refineries go to this link.

They are sponsoring a showing the Vice documentary, "Bomb Trains," tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 7) in Portland. There is information on the Rising Tide website.  If you cannot go to this event, the documentary can be seen on YouTube here.