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 Current and former administration officials told Reuters they were
unsure if they had the power to force the energy industry to drain
volatile gas from crude oil originating in North Dakota's fields.
Instead, they opted to back North Dakota's effort to remove the
cocktail of explosive gas - known in the industry as 'light ends' -
and rely on the state to contain the risk.
North Dakota's regulations come into force next month.
The administration's internal debate shows that concern about the
risks associated with oil trains reached the upper level of the
White House. But the administration balked at addressing the problem
in new regulations governing crude oil trains that it is preparing
to introduce this spring.
When Transportation Department and White House officials convened on
this issue last summer, the administration decided to back North
Dakota's plan to limit vapor pressure - a measure that was just
taking shape at the time.
"The Department of Transportation supported North Dakota on
treatment of crude oil in the field," a White House official told
Reuters.
 But a growing number of safety advocates say relying on North Dakota
is not insufficient to regulate a product that is hauled thousands
of miles of track and across many state lines.
"These trains are going all across the country so it absolutely has
to be the feds who are in charge," said Karen Darch, mayor of
Barrington, Illinois, where several oil and ethanol trains pass
through her town weekly.
On Thursday afternoon, a BNSF oil train delivery including more than
100 tanker cars derailed in Illinois, according to local media.
Last summer, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx took his concerns
about Bakken fuel to the White House and sought advice on what to do
about the danger of light ends, according to sources familiar with
the meeting who were not authorized to speak publicly about the
matter.
By then, Foxx had spent more than 12 months weighing safety measures
that would prevent oil train derailments from becoming fiery
disasters like the 2013 Lac Megantic tragedy in Canada in which 47
people were killed by a runaway Bakken train delivery.
The Transportation Department was warning that Bakken fuel was
uncommonly volatile and explosion-prone. Foxx's agency conceived an
oil train safety plan in July with an array of measures that aimed
to make sure oil train cargo moved safely on the tracks.
Tankers would have toughened shells. Oil train deliveries would slow
down. Advanced braking systems would be adopted.
But the rule would do nothing to limit volatile gas.
Foxx brought his concerns about the unresolved issue of dangerous
gas, commonly measured as vapor pressure, and his agency's limited
power to curtail the problem to President Barack Obama's chief of
staff, Denis McDonough. The administration decided to just let the
existing oil train safety plan take root.
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"Before the meeting, the department had already identified issues
with the characteristics of the crude oil, including vapor pressure,
and had developed potential strategies related to the overall
improvement and safety of the transport of the product and how the
industry could treat it," the White House official said.
Suzanne Emmerling, spokeswoman for the Transportation Department,
said on Thursday "neither the White House or anyone in any
department has ever balked at improving the safety of this product
in any way.”
“The Department looked closely at every aspect of the transportation
of flammable products by rail, including vapor pressure, tank cars,
and rail operations, and ultimately submitted a rule that we believe
will raise the bar on the safe transport of this product.”
Emmerling declined to comment on why the Transportation Department
did not include vapor pressure controls in its oil train proposal
last year.
Officials may not comment on pending rules, she said, noting that
the final rule may contain elements not included in the draft.
That approach is not good enough for many critics.
New York Senator Charles Schumer warned this week that oil train
"disasters" could continue "until the stability of the crude being
loaded into the tank cars themselves is improved."
Of the roughly 1.2 million barrels of crude oil produced in North
Dakota daily, more than 60 percent of that fuel reaches refineries
by rail, typically in 100-tanker unit trains that can stretch a mile
long.
A large share of that fuel moves through New York on the way to
refineries in the mid-Atlantic.
In a letter to Secretary Foxx and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz,
Schumer encouraged the officials "to work together to develop new
regulations that would require the stabilization of crude oil prior
to shipment."
An Energy Department official said the agency is in the early stages
of developing a report on Bakken crude dangers that "may be of use
to the Department of Transportation, which has regulatory authority
over the transport of crude oil."
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Additional reporting by Ernest
Scheyder; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Richard Chang)
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