Free Republic

CNSNews.com) -- Not building the 875-mile Keystone XL Pipeline could result in the release of up to 42 percent more greenhouse gases than would be released by building it, according to the State Department. Not building the pipeline “is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the [Canadian] oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States,” the department noted in a long-awaited environmental report released January 31st. But the “No Build” option is likely to result in an increased number of oil spills, six more deaths annually, and up to...

The diesel-burning locomotive, the workhorse of American railroads since World War II, will soon begin burning natural gas — a potentially historic shift that could cut fuel costs, reduce pollution and strengthen the advantage railroads hold over trucks in long-haul shipping. Rail companies want to take advantage of booming natural gas production that has cut the price of the fuel by as much as 50 percent. So they are preparing to experiment with redesigned engines capable of burning both diesel and liquefied natural gas. Natural gas "may revolutionize the industry much like the transition from steam to diesel," said Jessica...

Where crude oil is concerned, Canada waits for no country. It doesn’t matter how wealthy or how friendly that country is -- or whether that country is the United States. With the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline stuck in limbo on the U.S. side, Canada’s Energy Board recently gave a thumbs up to a $6.5 billion pipeline designed to carry 525,000 barrels of oil per day from the oil sands of Alberta to ships on the British Columbia coast. The final destination is most likely Asia. The development has the U.S. oil industry attacking the Obama administration over its drawn-out process....

BREAKING NEWS: A train is derailed west of Casselton, North Dakota. It happened at 35th Street and 154th Avenue Southeast just before 2:20 p.m. Monday. Several area emergency teams are on scene and are setting up an incident command center. A viewer who is about a half mile from the derailment tells Valley News Live she can see large flames. Several train cars are on fire and huge plumes of black smoke can be seen for miles. Emergency crews are urging people to stay inside and a code red alert has been sent out to residents in a two mile...

Train 42, 'The Pelican', headed by N&W 4-8-4 Class J 603 arrives at Rural Retreat, VA eastbound from New Orleans to Washington shortly before 10pm Dec. 27th, 1957, and thunders off into the night. The Norfolk & Western Railway's own Class J was perhaps the finest of all express steam engines, and 603 is heard here in its last days of main line service with a consist of 17 cars. The photograph is of Train 17 'The Birmingham Special' westbound arriving later that same night at 11:37pm, being waved through by Agent J.L. Akers. The photograph and sound recording were...

Muni passengers were taken for a wild ride this morning after their train car departed the station without the driver aboard. According to the Chron, at about 10:15 a.m. the KT-Ingleside/Third Street train was about to leave the Castro Street station when the operator spotted a problem with one of the train doors. The operator hopped out to fix the issue, and that's when the real problems began. Perhaps the operator forgot to employ the emergency brake, but for unknown reasons the train loaded with passengers took off -- leaving the operator behind. As the train rolled away -- headed...

MILWAUKEE — The gleaming red-and-white trains sit motionless in a cavernous warehouse in Century City, an industrial neighborhood that cranked out 100 million car and truck frames in its heyday. The seats are draped in plastic; an electronic screen on one reads, “Quiet Car. 11:10 a.m. 000 MPH.” President Obama once hoped that these high-speed trains would be transporting passengers from Milwaukee to Madison, Wis., part of a broader system crisscrossing the Midwest and the nation. But Wisconsin’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, rejected $823 million in funding that the federal government was offering, and the Transportation Department transferred the funds...

Since the beginning of last year, seven people have thrown themselves in front of trains on the Blue Line, which traverses some of the county’s poorest areas on its 22-mile route between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach. Before the recent increase, suicides had averaged one per year since the line opened in 1990, according to Metro spokesman Marc Littman

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who embezzled $320,000 from a California state agency was later hired by the state's High-Speed Rail Authority — and she says nobody asked about her background. The Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/141r1Z6 ) says Carey Moore spent two years in prison after pleading no contest to grand theft in 2007. Prosecutors say she embezzled from the Department of Child Support Services. In 2011, Moore was hired by the High-Speed Rail Authority. Her job included making travel plans for officials. Her state job application didn't ask whether she'd been convicted of a crime and Moore says nobody...

As flames cover the sky in front of him, Adrien Aubert is clearly incredulous. His amateur video of the Lac-Mégantic explosion shows a town divided by a towering wall of fire. Aubert, who estimates that he is about 200 metres from downtown, narrates the disaster in French, explaining how the various tankers are exploding one by one while peppering in some (understandable, given the circumstances) obscenities in both French and English. ... Raw amateur video from the night of the explosion. Note, there is some (understandable) adult language in both French and English. here

...The locomotive caught fire, so firefighters shut off the engine to stop the flames from spreading. That slowly disengaged the air brakes, and the driverless train carrying 72 cars of crude oil rolled downhill into the scenic lakeside town of Lac-Megantic, derailing, exploding and leveling the town center. At least 13 people were killed and some 37 are still missing, according to Canadian police... He secured the train at 11:25 p.m. on Friday, setting the air brakes and hand brakes, according to MMA. Burkhardt said the engineer set the brakes on all five locomotives at the front of the train,...

A n oil-laden train not unlike those rolling down American tracks derailed and exploded Saturday in a Canadian town, proving why pipelines are safer and environmentalist opposition to a pipeline from Canada is misguided. At least 13 people were reported dead and 37 missing in the charred Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, 130 miles east of Montreal, after the accident created an inferno of burning crude. Some may never be found, likely vaporized by the sheer intensity of the blaze that burned for 36 hours. Canada's oil boom, due largely to development of the oil sands in its western province of...

A deadly crude oil train disaster in Canada has brought renewed scrutiny to the growing use of rail to carry oil – including hundreds of thousands of barrels in Texas – and prompted worries that the higher volume will mean more accidents. Though rail proponents say moving crude by train is safe, federal regulators and others say that pipelines are safer, a stance that has played a role in the debate over the planned Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Texas coast. And regardless of the relative safety of the two transportation modes, the mere fact that more crude...

Elaine Silets is a train lover like no other. Not only did she make a career out of building model train displays but her expansive estate is an homage to the locomotive. And over the weekend, Silets did something she does but once per year: she opened up her gardens to the public and something like 6,000 curious train lovers descended on her home. With10 acres of gardens, waterfalls, lakes, trestles, bridges, and replica towns and pastoral scenes, her Glorée & Tryumfant Garden Railway in North Barrington, Illinois, it’s no wonder they call her the Train Lady. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2354273/Thousands-flock-tour-Train-Ladys-massive-model-train-filled-estate-garden.html#ixzz2Y0XtGBOq

"Redistributing" the Wealth

Oil is bringing jobs and business opportunities to the Lower Columbia region but it also is raising fears that the river will become a fossil fuel highway, The Daily News of Longview reported in Sunday’s newspaper. Last year, oil cars began leaving the Bakken shale region centered near Williston, N.D., en route 1,200 miles to Columbia County to be unloaded at Port Westward near Clatskanie. Earlier this year, Tesoro proposed to build a $100 million terminal at the Port of Vancouver that would create 80 jobs. And similar proposals are being considered in Tacoma and Grays Harbor County. The oil...

... In short, Mr. Obama is about to hammer the American energy industry, and he's doing it for money. The real elephant in the room is the Keystone XL pipeline project intended to bring Canadian oil to American Gulf Coast refineries and the resulting products onto the international market. In fact, the title of the Bloomberg article cited above includes the words "Keystone foes." Mr. Obama has already delayed Keystone, once and a final decision is coming up. While Keystone has received a lot of press attention, there are two interrelated aspects that have not yet come to the surface....

French Soldier Stabbed In Neck Near Paris Adam TaylorMay 25, 2013, 1:43 PM A soldier patrolling as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan was stabbed in the neck this afternoon, Reuters reports. A police source told the news agency that the soldier would survive the attack. He is 23 years old, according to CNN. Le Parisien is reporting that the attacker was of Northern African appearance, aged around 30 years old and wearing a jilbab, a type of Islamic garment. The man quickly fled the scene and has not been caught. The attack happened in La Défense, to the...

Historian John Diers, author of the new book "St. Paul Union Depot," will be among the train enthusiasts who will welcome visitors to the Union Depot on Saturday, May 11. The newly refurbished Lowertown depot, which is expected to provide Amtrak passenger service by the end of the year, is celebrating Amtrak's "National Train Day" with free family activities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Diers, who will deliver a presentation, will have copies of his book for sale. The Radio Disney road crew, a vintage bluegrass railroad band led by Cannonball Paul, storeowner Choo Choo Bob and the St....

More than a week before three people were killed and more than 175 people were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, a Jersey City man was arrested at the train station in Hoboken while carrying two home-made bombs, authorities say. Police also found explosive devices in the Newport Parkway home of Mykyta Panasenko, 27, Jersey City police said today. According to a criminal complaint, Panasenko is charged with having "two destructive devices, specifically improvised explosive devices (IEDs) constructed from a cylinder containing Pyrodex (black powder)" on April 5, the criminal complaint says.