Trump administration rolls back Obama-era oil train rules

PORTLAND — The Trump administration is angering environmental groups and residents of the Columbia River Gorge by rolling back a 2015 rule on oil train safety.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday that the Obama administration rule change required trains carrying highly explosive liquids to have electronically controlled pneumatic brakes installed by 2021.

Those new systems were intended to help prevent fiery oil train wrecks like the one that happened in the Oregon town of Mosier in 2016.

President Donald Trump’s administration says the rule change would cost three times the benefit it would produce.

Chet Thompson, of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, says in a statement that the rollback a “rational decision.”

Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes are supposed to be safer than air-controlled brakes because they are faster.