Bomb Trains

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains December 27, 2018

Growing Divestment Movement Is Beginning To Hit The Fossil Fuel Industry Where It Hurts The Most

By Bill McKibben The Guardian (12/16/18) I remember well the first institution to announce it was divesting from fossil fuel. It was 2012 and I was on the second week of a gruelling tour across the US trying to spark a movement. Our roadshow had been playing to packed houses down the west coast, and we’d crossed the continent to Portland, Maine. As a raucous crowd jammed the biggest theatre in town, a physicist named Stephen Mulkey took the mic. He was at the time president of the tiny Unity College in the state’s rural interior, and he announced…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains November 1, 2018

Could This Become Your Neighbor? Living On The Front Lines Of Wisconsin’s Silica Sand Mines

Frac Sand mine, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. By Christine Yellowthunder Fractracker Alliance (10/29/18) Most people living in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa have increased their knowledge over the past six years regarding the fracking destruction occurring across the country. The horror of fracking damages to life and land remain in the minds of most people who live near the massive land destruction from silica sand mining for what the unconventional oil and gas industry lovingly calls “proppant”. Very often, we in the Midwest wonder if the rest of the country knows that this specialized form of silica sand mining destroys…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains September 27, 2018

‘Shameless’: Trump Repeals Rule Crafted To Prevent Oil-Carrying ‘Bomb Trains’ From Derailing & Exploding

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams (9/25/18) n a move that outraged environmentalists and increased the chances of deadly and destructive accidents, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has repealed an Obama-era rule that mandated safety upgrades for “dangerous” oil tanker trains to reduce the possibility of derailments, explosions, and spills. “This commonsense rule was put in place in response to a series of deadly accidents, and this shameless decision to repeal it will mean more workers and communities are put at risk,” declared Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign director Kelly Martin. The rule required trains carrying…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains, Climate Change August 2, 2018

The Empire Files: The History Of Worldwide Tyranny Of Big Oil

“The oil industry is our government. There is no difference.” — Greg Palast, Investigative reporter. By Abby Martin The Empire Files / teleSur (1/15/16) The oil industry is a powerhouse with control over land, resources, politics and more. In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin uncovers big oil’s strong-arm reach–its growth, its crimes, its power and its impunity. Featuring interviews with two investigative journalists who have covered oil disasters on-the-ground–Antonia Juhasz, author of “Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill”, and Greg Palast, author of “Vulture’s Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pig, Power Pirates, and…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains, Climate Change June 18, 2018

TransCanada’s New ‘Best-In-Class’ Gas Pipeline Blows Up In Fiery Blast Mere Six Months After Completion

By Sharon Kellly DeSmog.blog (6/7/18) This morning [6/7/18], residents of Marshall County, West Virginia, awoke at 4:15 a.m. to a major natural gas rupture and explosion on TransCanada’s Leach XPress pipeline on Nixon Ridge — a quickly built pipeline only half a year old. The fire was visible for miles, local TV news reported. Police warned anyone who could see the flames to evacuate — and the Emergency Management Agency director of neighboring Ohio County said officials had received dozens of 911 calls from locals able to see the fire, which was extinguished roughly four hours later. The blast was so powerful that…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains, Climate Change, Good News February 5, 2018

Here’s How To Battle Climate Change Without Washington DC.

Frack oil train running alongside the vulnerable Mississippi River. By Bill McKibben The Guardian (2/1/18) he most telling item in Donald Trump’s State of the Union address may have been what wasn’t there: any mention of climate change, the greatest problem the world faces. And just as telling was the fact that official Washington seemed barely to notice. Understandably preoccupied with his vile attacks on immigrants (or cheering his ability to actually stay with one task for one hour), press, pundits, and other politicians treated the omission as not even worthy of note. The Democratic response from Representative Joe Kennedy didn’t touch on…

ALL ARTICLES, Bomb Trains February 8, 2017

Fire Chief Recalls Fiery Oil Train Derailment: ‘I have never seen anything more terrifying’

(The Commoner Call photo by Mark L. Taylor, 2017. Open source and free to use with link to www.the commonercall.org ) (Editor’s Note: Keep in mind the oil train in this story is the same kind of trains we have rolling through the heart of many cities – like La Crosse, WI – and thousands of small towns and villages across the nation. Really, it is time to move to non-fossil fuel energy energy. From wellhead to car gas tank, oil is a growing disaster. – Mark L. Taylor) By Jeff Klasen Bay Today (2/4/17) It’s been…