Revisiting the Bakken Crude Shipment Through NY Debate

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Let's revisit the issue of Bakken Shale oil traveling on down the train tracks. MDN has written to criticize New York anti-drillers who fought to get train movement information released--not so people could be safer but so they could use the information in their PR offensive against shale drilling. In the process they've made New Yorkers less safe (see New York Caves to Anti-Drillers Again: Discloses Oil Train Movements). Is there, however, another side to this story? A North Dakota resident sent out an op-ed to a number of media outlets, including MDN. In it he calls out his own state government for their unwillingness to force Bakken drillers to first separate out natural gas liquids from the light sweet crude produced in the Bakken--chemicals that make train shipments much more volatile and explosive. He says he supports drilling and simply wants the output from Bakken drilling cleaned up before shipping--to make it safer. Is it really that simple?...

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