New Video: Voices Against Oil Trains

Oil transport by rail is causing alarm amid consumer and environmental advocates.

Clip from "Voices Against Oil Trains'

(PORTLAND, OR) - Staggering quantities of fossil fuels could soon be pouring into the West Coast for shipment overseas, putting local residents at incalculable risk with little return.

Nationwide, oil by rail transport has increased 4,211% (four thousand two hundred eleven per cent) since 2008. & nbsp;During that same time, the Pacific Northwest went from having zero oil-by-rail facilities capable of receiving unit trains, to three functional and seven proposed terminals as of the end of 2013.

Mushroom clouds like the ones that erupted just one mile outside the North Dakota town of Casselton last December are just one possible catastrophic outcome besides economic hardship, environmental devastation, decreased air quality and concomitant increases in respiratory disease, death, and more.

Meanwhile, policies overseeing rail cars--and tankers and pipelines--are woefully weak to effectively protect the public. This is why oil transport by rail is causing alarm amid consumer and environmental advocates, politicians and communities along rail lines, and even the rail industry itself.

A comprehensive report on multiple fossil fuel threats facing the Pacific Northwest-- including oil by rail transport--will soon be released by ForestEthics, which contributed to this spot.