The
derailment of a 101-car CSX freight train on a bridge in a densely-populated
part of Philadelphia this past week should be yet another warning to
politicians who have become cheerleaders for oil and gas fracking.
The train had
been hauling crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. A severe snow storm delayed by several days removing
the derailed cars and 80,000 gallons of crude oil from the decades-old bridge
over I-76 and the Schuylkill River, which flows into the Delaware River. Oil
and gas companies using horizontal fracking have made the Bakken the most
productive oil shale in the country.
Numerous
articles and scientific research studies have already shown the link between
horizontal fracking and health and environmental problems. But the
transportation of shale oil and gas by trains, trucks, and pipelines poses more
immediate threats.
