Trump administration rolls back Obama-era oil train rules

By Associated Press

Published: December 7, 2017, 11:34am

FILE - This Nov. 6, 2013 file photo shows a warning placard on a tank car carrying crude oil near a loading terminal in Trenton, N.D. Inspectors have found almost 24,000 safety defects over a two-year period along United States railroad routes used to ship volatile crude oil. Data obtained by The Associated Press shows many of the defects were similar to problems blamed in past derailments that caused massive fires or oil spills in Oregon, Virginia and Montana. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

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.

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