North Dakota train wreck spurs oil alarmism

By Jillian Kay Melchior | National Review Online

The frigid prairie outside Casselton, N.D., transformed in an instant on Dec. 30, as a mushroom of fire and smoke shot hundreds of feet into the air. Railway tankers carrying oil burned wildly, and though the temperature was only about 10 degrees, the responding deputies could feel the heat through their windshields as they drove toward the blaze. Miraculously, no one was killed or injured.

Such a close call defies odds and evokes fears. That’s natural, but some of the reaction has also been illogical, with critics scapegoating the cargo for the crash. While it’s true that this train accident involved oil, responsibility for the accident almost certainly resides with the rail industry, not the energy industry. The alarmists who suggest otherwise are all too often motivated by their own hatred of America’s fossil-fuel boom.

at National Review Online.

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