Oil companies challenge new oil train safety rules

The oil industry is challenging new federal oil train safety rules.

The American Petroleum Institute has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to block some rules that recently were unveiled by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

The filing was no surprise because the trade group long has said that forcing shippers to retrofit old tank cars with new safety features or replace them with new ones, as federal officials want, would lead to a tank car shortage.

Oil companies and other firms own most of the cars. Railroads typically do not own them.

Oil tank cars are more in demand now due to large amounts of crude produced in western North Dakota's Bakken region. Train derailments and explosions such as one last week near Heimdal, N.D., have led many to call for a ban on the older cars, with thinner skins, and other safety improvements.

Shippers such as oil companies complain about the costs the new rules would impose. Foxx said about 43,000 oil tank cars must be taken off the tracks or retrofitted to be safer by 2020.

The New York Times reports: "The petition seeks to block a requirement that older tank cars be retrofitted with new safety features designed to prevent them from spilling oil or rupturing in a derailment. It also challenges a requirement that tank cars be equipped with new electronic braking systems or face operational restrictions."

The trade group did not ask the court to overrule requirements that new oil tank cars be stronger.

Obama administration transportation officials called the lawsuit "disappointing."

The Hill, a Washington, D.C. news service, reported Tuesday that an American Petroleum spokesman said that the oil industry's goal is of having no incidents. The spokesman also said that the federal government offered no proof that its new rules would bolster safety.

“Improving on a 99.997 percent safety record requires data-driven efforts to prevent derailments with enhanced inspections and maintenance, upgrade the tank car fleet and educate first responders,” American Petroleum spokesman Brian Straessle said.