North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Chairman, this amendment requires the Department of Energy to study and report to Congress within 1 year the maximum level of volatility that is safe for transporting crude oil by rail.

This commonsense improvement to the bill is a first step in addressing concerns of residents in districts like mine that, while it is heavily industrialized, is also urbanized. The area that I represent has five oil refineries and two destination facilities for oil by rail.

In 2008, oil traffic had increased over 5,000 percent along rail routes leading from production zones in America to refineries and hubs along both coasts. As traffic increases, so does the risk of derailments to communities. Bakken crude oil is considered more volatile than other types of crude and has important safety implications for all of us.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has issued safety alerts warning that crude oil being transported from this region may be more flammable than traditional heavy crude oil. In fact, heavy volatile crude oil from this region has been compared to jet fuel with flammable vapors that can ignite after a derailment.

Several communities along rail lines have been forced to evacuate or sustain significant property and environmental damage after derailment. Unfortunately, there have been instances of severe injuries and some deaths resulting from these accidents.

While the Obama administration has taken important steps to improve tank car standards, more must be done to ensure that Americans living near railways are safe. This amendment requires DOE to determine the acceptable volatility for the safe transportation of oil by rail.

I would urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source