Industries work behind scenes to shape new rail safety rules

WASHINGTON — A string of fiery train derailments across the continent has triggered a high-stakes but campaign to shape how the government responds to calls for tighter safety rules.

Billions of dollars are riding on how these rules are written, and lobbyists from the railroads, tank car manufacturers and the oil, ethanol and chemical industries have met 13 times since March with officials at the White House and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Their universal message: Don’t make us pay for increased safety because that’s another industry’s problem.

The pitches illustrate why government officials, who must showthat safety benefits outweigh the economic costs of rules, often struggle for years, only to produce watered-down regulations.

The Association of American Railroads, for example, is pushing for tougher safety standards for tank cars than the current, voluntary standards agreed to by industry in 2011. Railroads, though, typically don’t own or lease tank cars and so wouldn’t have to buy new cars or retrofit existing ones. The oil and ethanol industries that own the cars want to stick with the voluntary standards, also known as “1232” tank cars.

The railroads argue that better tank cars are needed because the kind of crude oil being produced in the oil boom Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana and in some other parts of the country is more likely to ignite if a tank car is punctured or ruptured in an accident.

The American Petroleum Institute, however, says Bakken crude is no different from other light, sweet crude oil sand doesn’t need special containers.

“We have billions invested in tank cars,” said Bob Greco, a senior official with the American Petroleum Institute.

The ethanol industry says it would cost about $3 billion to retrofit or replace the industry’s 30,000 tank cars to make them tougher, said Bob Dinneen, head of the Renewable Fuels Association.

The chemical industry, which ships both flammable and nonflammable liquids in tank cars, has told regulators that if they propose a new tank car standard, it should be phased in, starting with oil shipments.

Edward Hamberger, head of the Association of American Railroads, said he is dismayed that regulators are considering lowering oil train speeds to 30 mph. Railroads already have voluntarily lowered speeds from 50 mph to 40 mph in urban areas, he said.