Join the discussion on the following article:
AAR, ASLRRA push tougher tank car standards, 92,000 cars possibly affected
Join the discussion on the following article:
AAR, ASLRRA push tougher tank car standards, 92,000 cars possibly affected
Memories of Lac-Megantic
I filled my truck, well almost, with regular gas @ $2.98 / gal. today. The sticker on the pump said “up to 10% ethanol”. First time I have seen that. We don’t need any stinking ethanol in our gas in Montana, while the cows go hungry. Of course, I wouldn’t eat any “corn-fed” beef either. Yuck!
William,
That’s a result of several Federal mandates. The Ethanol mandate is the well-known one, but there is also one that requires a certain octane rating. By using a lower-grade gasoline from the refinery and then blending it with Ethanol, the gas distributor can satisfy both, and save itself a bunch of money in the process. Our intrusive Federal government is to blame for most of this mess.
Equip all the new cars with graffiti-proof paint so the hazmat markings will remain visible.
The ethanol requirements are supposed to help farmers but in reality are welfare for agribusiness pushed by congressmen from, well, Montana and Iowa (and dare I say Illinois?), among many others. The railroads also benefit, but us poor slobs don’t.
Just one trouble is virtually all of the cars are owned by either investment groups , banks , private companies or private shippers. This ends up being another case of the Federal government creating mandates for the private sector that will be fought on the basis of it costing to much money to impliment. The railroads are mearly car handlers that move it from point A to point B and it is up to the shippers to verify the content of the product and the safety of the cars.