Scott Sines, ©The Green Rocket News
Watch the debate shift in the coming year. Opinions will change from environmental concerns over fracking, to the pressing issues of transporting oil and gas to market.
Energy companies can’t possibly build enough pipelines, in the right places, to keep up with exploration, but they can lay rail. And that rail can lead to river barge transport before it finds the refinery. Accidents can be catastrophic.
These oils are different. A string of fiery accidents involving rail transport of shale oil compelled the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to issue a warning last week declaring that “the Bakken’s light crude oil—which is often transported through Minnesota—may be different from traditional heavy crudes because it is prone to ignite at a lower temperature. Experts say lighter crudes, which contain more natural gas, have a much lower “flash point,” the temperature at which vapors given off by the oil can ignite.”
At the same time, to skirt lengthy environmental delays many energy companies are proposing “repurposing” their pipelinesfrom gas to oil, a much less rigorous test.
