BNSF Challenges Lawsuit From Engineer Forced To Flee Exploding Bomb Train

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Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) has responded defensively to the oil-by-rail lawsuit filed by former BNSF locomotive engineer Bryan Thompson, a case recently reported on by DeSmogBlog.

BNSF — the top rail carrier of oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin — denied all charges. The company also argued that some federal laws protect the company from liability for injuries allegedly suffered by Thompson.

The Answer to the Complaint signals the likelihood of a protracted legal battle ahead. Lee A. Miller, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based attorney representing BNSF against Thompson, filed the company’s response in Cass County, North Dakota.

Oil Refiners Sue Warren Buffett’s BNSF Over Bomb Train Surcharge

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On March 13, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) — the oil refiners’ trade association —sued oil-by-rail carrying giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) for allegedly violating its common carrier obligation under federal law. A DeSmogBlog investigation has revealed there may be more to the lawsuit than initially meets the eye.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, AFPM sued BNSF “for violating its common carrier obligation by imposing a financial penalty” for those carrying oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin and other hazardous petroleum products in explosion-prone DOT-111 rail cars.

AFPM’s beef centers around the fact that BNSF began imposing a $1,000 surcharge for companies carrying explosive Bakken fracked oil in DOT-111 cars, as opposed to “safer” CPC-1232 cars, at the beginning of 2015. The Warren Buffett-owned BNSF did so, argues AFPM, illegally and without the authority of the federal government.

Mining The Earth & Fracking The World: Keystone Showdown

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Kate Lanier’s collects global energy and climate news. This week, she has a special focus on the fight over the Keystone XL Pipeline in Congress including:

Keystone XL Pipeline, US Senate: Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of the senate’s Energy and Natural resources Committee blasted the Senate’s Keystone XL pipeline bill. Sanders is concerned about the US Senate rejecting science and efficient renewable energy, while Warren concentrated on the pipeline benefitting the Canadian oil industry and not US families. Update: “Democrats plan tough votes for GOP on Keystone pipeline bill.”

Meanwhile, from Vatican City: Pope Francis has added his voice in opposition to mining, fracking, and disregard for the earth in general. He appears in a movie, La Guerra Del Fracking de Pino Solanas (The Fracking War), banned in Argentina (where the government calls fracking “non-conventional gas”), but now on YouTube.” Pope Francis also spoke to the urgency of focusing on youth, the future.

Alabama: Radioactive (tritium) leak at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Athens, after which TVA said “the leak was quickly contained and presented no public risk.” Not the only TVA radioactive leak, nor the only one at Browns Ferry.

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