VIDEO: The explosive oil train boom | StateImpact Pennsylvania Skip Navigation

VIDEO: The explosive oil train boom

The Weather Channel has teamed up with InsideClimate News to take a look at the explosive growth in oil-by-rail shipments across North America.
As the fracking boom unleashes massive amounts of domestic oil, much of it is flowing out of North Dakota’s Bakken Shale by train.
As StateImpact Pennsylvania has previously reported, the Bakken oil has helped breathe new life into Philadelphia’s refineries, but the city has also become one of the nation’s most heavily traveled regions for rail oil shipments.
A string of recent accidents has prompted calls for safety upgrades.

Last year two oil trains derailed in Pennsylvania. No one was hurt, but the first derailment left train cars dangling over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, and the second accident outside Pittsburgh, spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil.

Up Next

Study: Greenhouse gas emissions from industry concentrated in two sources