Josh Fox and Lee Ziesche / Solutions Grassroots & EcoWatch – 2015-05-13 00:13:42
http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/09/oil-gas-bomb-trains/
A Danger on the Rails
John Bowermaster / The New York Times
Are Dangerous Bomb Trains Rolling Through Your City?
Josh Fox and Lee Ziesche / Solutions Grassroots & EcoWatch
(May 9, 2015) — This week in Heimdal, North Dakota another “bomb train” derailed and exploded. These dangerous trains carrying crude-oil fracked in the Bakken Shale are rolling through the backyards of America, across rivers and streams and into major cities like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Albany, New York.
Our Video of the Week from documentary filmmaker Jon Bowermaster exposes the daily threat that many Americans are now living with as the oil and gas industry continues its desperate and dangerous expansion of extreme fossil fuel development in America.
You can see if dangerous bomb trains are rolling through your town here.
Lee’s from Pittsburgh, so we looked them up first. Pittsburgh was the first city in the world to ban fracking and many of the most passionate fractivists on Earth come from Western Pennsylvania.
The red is 0.5 Mile US Department of Transportation Evacuation Zone for Oil Train Derailments and the yellow is 1.0 Mile US Department of Transportation Potential Impact Zone in Case of Oil Train Fire.
It’s a terrifying map to look at.
We’ve been looking at a lot of maps recently. Maps of bomb train routes. Maps of proposed pipelines and other infrastructure projects like LNG ports and gas-fired power plants. Maps of fracking wells and areas where fracking earthquakes are popping up like crazy.
Looking at all these maps, We see each community that has been put on the fossil fuel chopping block and think about the people we know who are now forced to live their lives in these danger zones. Looking at map after map, we can also see the bigger picture of fossil fuel domination as it expands across our country, a dangerous web of pipelines and train tracks that connect fracking well pads to the rest of the world, threatening us all.
Seeing the bigger picture is a powerful thing. That’s why were starting a new series on our blog: Map of the Week. Our first post has a bunch of startling maps that show how these bomb trains may be running right through your town.
Bomb Trains in America
Map of the Week / EcoWatch
(May 8, 2015) I’ve become a little obsessed with maps recently.
I’ve been looking at maps of bomb train routes. Maps of proposed pipelines and other infrastructure projects like LNG ports and gas-fired power plants. Maps of fracking wells and areas where fracking earthquakes are popping up like crazy.
Looking at all these maps, I see each community that has been put on the fossil fuel chopping block and think about the people I know who are now forced to live their lives in these danger zones. Looking at map after map, I can also see the bigger picture of fossil fuel domination as it expands across our country, a dangerous web of pipelines and train tracks that connect well pads to the rest of the world, threatening us all.
Seeing the bigger picture is a powerful thing, that’s why were starting a new series on our blog — Map of the Week.
Our first Map of the Week (courtesy of explosive-crude-by-rail.org) shows the danger zone created by crude-oil bomb trains running through my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
The red is 0.5 Mile US DOT Evacuation Zone for Oil Train Derailments and the yellow is 1.0 Mile US DOT Potential Impact Zone in Case of Oil Train Fire.
Pittsburgh may have been the first city in the world to ban fracking, but when it comes to crude oil bomb trains, it’s marked by a giant X of potential disaster, with trains running by all three major rivers and near sporting stadiums and hospitals.
And it’s not just Pittsburgh.
Once the crude oil is fracked in North Dakota, it’s shipped out over a dangerous web of rails across our country through the backyards of America, into our major cities. In some places, these are the very same tracks that carry passengers through Amtrak and commuter rail. (See Parts of LA are also in the crosshairs.)
From Fort Collins, down through Boulder and Denver, to Colorado Springs, many Colorado towns are at risk.
To see if your town is in the bomb train blast-zone visit http://explosive-crude-by-rail.org/
Lee Ziesche, Grassroots Coordinator
PS: If you have videos or maps you’d like us to share please email me at leeziesche@gmail.com
See more at: Gasland The Movie.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
