> During an outdoor Town Meeting in July in northeast Minneapolis, State Rep.
Frank Hornstein and others detailed issues with trains hauling highly explosive
crude oil and the dangers they present to communities -- also called Blast
Zones and "Bomb Trains" by some. During that one-hour meeting alone, four very
long trains hauling crude oil passed through the site of the town meeting.
Minneapolis has large expanses of Blast Zone.
>
> As a result of that meeting, Minneapolis residents have partnered with
neighbors from St. Paul, Fridley and other metro cities plus MN350.org to seek
changes that better protect our communities. The federal government has
proposed some changes to rail cars hauling crude. Public comments on the
proposed regulations are due Sept. 30. To help people understand the issues and
the proposed regulations, a Community Meeting and Comment-Writing Session will
be held 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 -- this time in St. Paul at the Historic
Como Street Car Station, 1224 Lexington Parkway N. (Details in attachment.)
Featured guest speaker will be Dave Riehle, a retired locomotive engineer and
past local chair of United Transportation Union Local 650, who shared some
pretty stunning information at the July town meeting. He'll be giving us a look
at what the proposed federal regulations do and do not do to keep us safe.
Laptops will be set up at the meeting for people to send their comments on the
spot. The attached flyer outlines other methods of commenting, as well as some
of the key talking points, if you are unable to attend the meeting. It sounds
like a good contingent of St. Paul-area elected officials will be attending, so
hopefully we'll have a good turnout from Minneapolis as well.
>
> Sierra Club and ForestEthics have already filed suit against the feds over
this issue, noting that Bakken crude should be prohibited entirely from being
transported via the older model of rail cars that are most often used for this
right now, known as DOT-111s, and that communities along these rail routes are
at risk.