The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
CanadaHealth & SafetyLegal & RegulatoryPipelines/Rail Transport
Home›Jurisdictions›Canada›Time to ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Canadian Rail Companies as Oil Trains Keep Derailing

Time to ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Canadian Rail Companies as Oil Trains Keep Derailing

June 16, 2020
June 16, 2020
 
146
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
Paul Lucas/Flickr

Broken track has led to seven major derailments of crude oil trains in Canada since the tragic Lac-Mégantic disaster of 2013. Now, revelations that Canadian Pacific’s Saskatchewan line is in bad shape have experts urging Transport Canada to become a more aggressive regulator of the country’s rail system.

“A CBC News investigation has uncovered years’ worth of Transport Canada inspection reports documenting hundreds of safety problems along the Saskatchewan rail line, none of which prompted orders for trains to stop rolling,” writes Canada’s national broadcaster.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

Between 2016 and 2020, inspectors documented more than 300 problems along the 183 kilometres of CP rail that link Wynyard, Saskatchewan, to Saskatoon: “131 ‘non-compliances’ and 215 ‘concerns’, including missing or defective railway ties (the wooden planks anchoring the track) and broken joint bars (which connect two long pieces of rail),” reports CBC.

“That’s an awful lot of non-compliance reports and concerns, and it looked like they were consistent over the three or four years,” said Ian Naish, a former director of rail investigations for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). The town of Guernsey, Saskatchewan had to evacuate twice in recent months due to nearby derailments of crude oil trains—the first in early December 2019, and the second in early February 2020. Given the condition of the track, said Naish, “neither derailment was a surprise at all.”

CP failed to adequately strengthen the track, even though its crude oil load along the line southeast of Saskatoon had “increased sevenfold since 2017,” reports CBC. The company could get away with it, in part, Transport Canada’s oversight has lacked teeth.

CBC clearly dissects this failure in its analysis of Transport Canada’s documentation: in the wake of the regulatory body discovering 200 issues along the Saskatchewan line between May and August, 2019—including along the track near Guernsey—Transport Canada reported that CP had made “all necessary repairs” to the defects. Then came the back-to-back derailments and explosions in December and February.

CP competitor Canadian National, meanwhile, underwent a wholesale reconstruction of track and appointed more inspectors in the wake of the derailments of two oil trains in early 2015 in northern Ontario. CP must now meet that same standard for its Saskatchewan track, said Rob Johnston, head of Central Canadian rail operations for the TSB. 

While Transport Canada “insists it runs a ‘robust’ oversight program,” writes CBC, the TSB has publicly disagreed, issuing two rail safety advisories in March that warned the regulatory body “to overhaul the track safety rules for routes that carry heavy volumes of dangerous goods.” Transport Canada has responded by instructing railway companies “to improve the quality and frequency of track inspections” and requesting that they “develop and revise new track safety rules.” 

That’s not enough for observers like Naish, who are asking the regulator to “drop the hammer” on rail companies, and start refusing to cede risk management to corporate interests.

Bruce Campbell, a professor of environmental studies at York University and author of a book on the Lac-Mégantic disaster, echoes that call. “In an ideal world, Transport Canada would have the science and the resources to independently evaluate and revise the rules itself,” he told CBC.

TagsBitumen BubbleBitumen Bubble Collateral DamageCities - Impacts
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
CanadaHealth & SafetyLegal & RegulatoryPipelines/Rail Transport

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • Alberta Calls for $30-Billion Carbon Capture Subsidy in Upcoming Federal Budget
      Alberta Calls for $30-Billion Carbon Capture Subsidy in Upcoming Federal Budget
      March 10, 2021
    • Panicky Messaging on Line 5 Closure Threat Masks Real Issues with Pipeline, Oil by Rail
      Panicky Messaging on Line 5 Closure Threat Masks Real Issues with Pipeline, Oil by Rail
      March 10, 2021
    • Experts Brace for Disaster as Canada, U.S. Increase Oil-by-Rail Shipments
      Experts Brace for Disaster as Canada, U.S. Increase Oil-by-Rail Shipments
      March 10, 2021
    • Quebec LNG Megaproject Will Drive Up Power Rates with $310M Revenue Hit, Analysis Finds
      Quebec LNG Megaproject Will Drive Up Power Rates with $310M Revenue Hit, Analysis Finds
      March 10, 2021
    • Sketchy Carbon Accounting Turns Net-Zero Targets into ‘Weapons-Grade Greenwash’, Scientist Warns
      Sketchy Carbon Accounting Turns Net-Zero Targets into ‘Weapons-Grade Greenwash’, Scientist Warns
      March 10, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Study Probes Northern Permafrost Loss at 1.5°, 2.0°C Average Warming
      March 9, 2021
    • China Plans Online Carbon Trading Market by Mid-Year
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Electric Motorbikes Fuel Carbon-Free Future for East Africa
      March 9, 2021
    • Volatile Market, Competing Automakers Drive Down Tesla’s Share Price
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Yukon Energy Turns to First Nation as Site for Territory’s Biggest Grid Battery
      March 9, 2021
    • Northeastern B.C. First Nation Gets Oilfield Services Training
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Second-Biggest U.S. Coal Mine Heads Toward Closure
      March 9, 2021
    • U.S. Legislator to Target Big Oil for Oversight
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • China Plans Online Carbon Trading Market by Mid-Year
      March 9, 2021
    • Pacific Islands Unveil Faster Shift to Renewables
      March 9, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.