U.S. House votes to block rail tank cars of LNG

“This plan is beyond absurd. Should even one tank car get punctured, the results could be devastating. My amendment blocks this brazen attempt by the administration. I urge the Senate to follow suit and stop a massive catastrophe before it’s too late.”

Regulations currently prohibit using pressurized rail tank cars to haul LNG. It is only allowed to move by pipeline, in tank trucks or in portable cargo tank containers.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the U.S. Department of Transportation agency reviewing the ETS application, cautioned that large releases of LNG due to the breach of the inner tank of a tank car “could pose pool fire, vapor fire and explosion hazards, which pose the highest potential impacts when compared to localized cryogenic hazards.”

But the agency also stated that moving one ton of freight by train results in approximately 70 percent less fuel use than moving the same freight by truck, and therefore moving it by train would reduce environmental damage.

When asked by DeFazio his view on the permit at a June 20 congressional hearing, Federal Railroad Administration chief Ron Batory said that “a lot of due diligence” had been provided, and that “it’s nothing [less safe than] handling volatile materials.”

The House T&I Committee countered in a June 24 statement that PHMSA “has not done its due diligence, and this rulemaking and special permit are being rushed without an opportunity to fully consider the potentially catastrophic consequences of moving LNG by rail.”