Oil train derails, explodes in North Dakota

A train carrying crude oil partially derailed and exploded in North Dakota on Wednesday, days after the federal government announced a set of rules meant to prevent and mitigate the effects of such disasters.

The train, operated by BNSF Railway, derailed near Heimdal, causing the evacuation of the entire town, Valley News Live reported.

{mosads}The train had 107 tank cars full of crude, 10 of which reportedly caught fire, according to emergency officials. No one was injured, and the cause of the derailment has not been determined.

The incident is the latest in a series of high-profile explosions in recent years that have spurred regulators in the United States and Canada to crack down on oil trains, which have grown in number by more than 4,000 percent during the domestic oil production boom.

Environmentalists quickly pointed to the North Dakota disaster as an example of why the Department of Transportation’s rules do not go far enough in taking older tank cars off the rails quickly.

“This accident is another example of how the American people are shouldering the risk for crude oil transport — whether an exploding train or a ruptured pipeline — while Big Oil rakes in the profits,” Devorah Ancel, an attorney with Sierra Club, said in a statement.

“The Department of Transportation’s new rules for transporting crude oil by rail would have done nothing to stop a disaster like the one in Heimdal,” she said.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, called the rules “unconscionable.”

“Just days after the new but still insufficient safety regulations were released, another derailment has clearly and tragically illustrated that these dangerous rail cars must be taken off the tracks now,” he said.