On July 6, over 30 activists in Sacramento held a vigil memorializing the 47 people killed in Canada in the Lac-Mégantic Disaster three years ago.
They began the vigil at 6 p.m. at the Florin Light Rail station, located next to the track that leads to the Kern County oil refineries. After the Raging Grannies opened the event by singing songs opposing oil drilling and fracking, the Sacramento Oil Trains Coalition read the names of the people killed in Lac-Mégantic.
The vigil took place in the capital of the third biggest oil state in the nation, where the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is headquartered. WSPA, the oil industry trade association for the Western states, is the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento. Kern County produces the majority of oil obtained from fracking, acidizing and steam injection operations in California. (www.oaklandmagazine.com/... )
The Sacramento rally and vigil was one of over 40 actions the same week across the U.S. demanding a halt to plans to run these explosive “bomb trains,” carrying fracked Bakken crude oil from South Dakota, through cities.
"We do not want these dangerous oil trains rolling through the communities of Sacramento, but that is exactly what the oil industry wants - to bring 100 car-long trains though our city, near our schools, home and businesses more than a day," said Chris Brown, action coordinator.
The Sacramento Oil Trains Coalition, including 350 Sacramento, ANSWER, Sac Activist School, and STAND, organized the event.
Valerie Williams of the Coalition and Ellen Cochrane, Sacramento City Unified School Board Member, spoke at the event about the dangers of oil trains.
“I was amazed when I first found out that there would be oil trains coming right through our backyard,” said Valerie Williams, a South Sacramento homeowner and student at California State University Sacramento (CSUS). “This is not only where we live, but it’s where we go to school and go to work. Our kids are already exposed to too much air pollution from toxic emissions; oil trains are the last thing we need here.”
Over 13,000 students in 17 schools are located in the blast zones of the oil trains, according to Williams. She noted that both Sacramento City College and CSUS are located within the blast zones.
Railroad cars filled with crude oil have been moving through Sacramento over the past several years as the head south to a transfer station outside Bakersfield and west to refineries in Richmond. Williams said her husband had recently witnessed a train with 30 cars carrying crude oil move through Sacramento.
The Valero Refining Company, a subsidiary of the San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, has applied to run two trains daily through Sacramento to its plant in Benicia. The Benicia City Planning Commission rejected Valero’s request this February, but the company has appealed the decision.
Forty-seven people died when a 74-car train carrying Bakken Formation crude oil derailed and destroyed a Canadian town, Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, three years ago. All but three of the 39 remaining downtown buildings are to be demolished due to petroleum contamination, according to Brown.
“Bakken crude, a fracked oil from South Dakota, is very volatile,” said Brown. “Derailments have led to massive explosions - more than 15 in the past two years, including one in the Columbia River Gorge at the beginning of June.”
Both the oil industry and Union Pacific claim that the oil trains are safe. Justin Jacobs, a spokesperson for Union Pacific, told Fox 40 News, "Our safety and statistics specifically with crude oil has a 99.9% of the time making it from its origination to its destination without incident.” (fox40.com/...)
However, activists cite the disasters in Lac-Mégantic, the Columbia River Gorge and elsewhere as evidence that allowing the oil trains to pass through Sacramento and other communities is an unacceptable risk — and they vowed to keep fighting to stop these trains.
“With backyards right next to the tracks,communities such as South Sacramento have some of the highest asthma rates in the region, from train engine fumes, and are now being subjected to this unjust risk,” said Brown.
“We can stop these oil trains if we organize and get people involved,” said Esteban Hernandez of the Sac Activist School. “We can win this battle.”
Governor Jerry Brown, while portraying himself as a “climate leader” at climate conferences and other photo opportunities, is a big supporter of the expansion of fracking for crude oil, the same type of highly explosive oil that the “bomb trains” are transporting. He is also a big promoter of widely-contested carbon trading and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) programs.
As protests against oil trains took place in Sacramento and across the nation, oil industry leaders, led by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), were talking with Brown administration officials In “hopes of reaching a consensus on extending California landmark climate change programs, according to LA Times reporters Chris Megerian and Melanie Mason. (touch.latimes.com/...)
For more information, go to: www.dailykos.com/...