United States Senator Chuck Schumer brought his campaign for tougher rail shipping safety standards to Bergen in Genesee County this afternoon.
Near the site of last month’s CSX freight train derailment, the Senate Democratic Leader said he wants the Departments of Transportation and Energy to come out with their safety review of crude oil shipment.
Schumer has long been critical of the way tank cars loaded with volatile crude oil from fracking operations in North Dakota are sent to eastern refineries. Often solid trains of tank cars pass through Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany on CSX. Schumer says one of those tank cars could become a bomb in a serious wreck as as happened in other states and the Province of Quebec.
Schumer says shippers should be required to put chemical stabilizers into the oil before loading it, making it far less likely to catch fire in a train wreck.
CSX train involved in last month’s accident was not carrying crude oil.