The Trump administration miscalculated potential damages from train derailments when it canceled an Obama administration rule requiring the installation of more advanced brakes by railroads hauling explosive fuels, The Associated Press reported.
A government analysis used by the administration to justify the cancellation omitted up to $117 million in estimated future damages that could be avoided by using electronic brakes, Kallanish Energy understands.
U.S. Department of Transportation officials acknowledged the mistake after it was discovered by the AP during a review of federal documents, but said it doesn't change their decision not to install the brakes.
Measures eneacted under Obama
Safety advocates, transportation union leaders and Democratic lawmakers oppose the administration's decision to cancel the brake rule, which was included in a package of rail safety measures enacted in 2015 under former President Obama following accidents by trains hauling oil in the U.S. and Canada.
The deadliest accident happened in Canada in 2013, when an unattended train carrying crude oil rolled down an incline, jumped the tracks in the town of Lac-Megantic and exploded in a massive ball of fire, killing 47 people and destroying much of the Quebec community's downtown.
Brakes applied simultaneously
After the brake rule was enacted, lobbyists for the railroad and oil industries pushed to cancel it, citing the high cost of installing so-called electronic pneumatic brakes and questioning their effectiveness.
Unlike other systems where brakes are applied sequentially along the length of a train, electronic pneumatic brakes, or ECP, work on all cars simultaneously. That can reduce the distance and time a train needs to stop, and cause fewer cars to derail.
"These ECP brakes are very important for oil trains," Steven Ditmeyer, a rail safety expert and former senior official at the Federal Railroad Administration, told AP.
Administration banks on fewer derailments
Under Obama, the Transportation Department determined the brakes would cost up to $664 million over 20 years and save between $470 million and $1.1 billion from accidents that would be avoided.
The Trump administration reduced the range of benefits to between $131 million and $374 million. Transportation department economists said in their analysis the change was prompted in part by a reduction in oil train traffic in recent years, which meant there would be fewer derailments.
But in making their calculations, they left out the most common type of derailments in which spilled and burning fuel causes property damage but no mass casualties, the AP found. Equipping fuel trains with electronic brakes would reduce damages from those derailments by an estimated $48 million to $117 million, according to Department of Transportation estimates left out of the administration's final tally.
Including the omitted benefits reduces the net cost of the requirement to as low as $63 million under one scenario laid out by the agency.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/trump-administration-miscalculated-train-brakes-worth/
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