Street Roots • July 29-August 4, 2016
News
Page 4
Oregon’s man of the hour
One of the most progressive lawmakers in a conservative U.S, Senate, Jeff Merkley is separating himself from
the pack in the fight against global warming, the housing crisis and political corruption
that might have done. I think one of the
reasons that we’re way behind on oil train
safety is that not that much oil was carried
.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley has made a big
by trains until the last 10 years. What we
splash in his eight years in the
have seen with the huge increase of oil
Senate. One of the Senate’s most
being produced is that there aren’t pipelines
progressive lawmakers, he made headlines
to carry it, so it’s being carried by trains. In
when he became the only U.S. senator to
one five-year period, there was a 40-fold
endorse Bernie Sanders’ bid for the
increase in trains. It’s a relatively new thing
Democratic presidential nomination.
to have these unit trains of oil crisscrossing
A common thread undergirds many of
the country.
Merkley’s policy positions and statements,
whether he is speaking about filibuster
A.W.: The Mandate Oil Spill Inspections
reform, the impact of the Citizens United
and Emergency Rules (MOSIER) Act, which
ruling on politics, global warming or income you and Sen. Ron Wyden recently introduced,
equality: that our
would require the National Transportation
society and political
Safety Board to investigate every major oil
system need to
train derailment, clarify the Federal Rail
"We just got word that
change, and quickly,
Administration’s authority to place
for the American
globally, lune was the hottest
moratoriums on train traffic after accidents,
republic to best serve
month on record ever. It is the
and require the Department of Transportation
to reduce the amount of volatile gases in the
14th month in a row that is the its citizens.
Among
crude
oil transported by the trains. Why these
hottest month on record. We
environmentalists, he
three requirements? Is it enough?
have to treat this as a threat to has become
J.M.: As we’ve really studied Mosier, we
somewhat of a focal
the lite on our planet."
found
several things that surprised me.
champion
for
his
U.S. SEN. JEFF MERKLEY
(D-ORE.) strong protest of the
First, the NTSB chose not to investigate.
Then when I was told that the Federal Rail
lax oversight of oil
Administration was going to investigate, I
train travel through
found out (the Union Pacific Railroad)
the Columbia Gorge,
controls the investigation. They collect the
spurred on by the derailment of an oil train
evidence; they send it to a lab they choose.
near Mosier in May.
That makes no sense at all. You need to
Amanda Waldroupe: It seems that oil
have third-party control over the
spills and oil train derailments have become
investigation to have any legitimacy with
commonplace. But if an airplane crashed or
the public. If you don’t have that, you don’t
another piece of infrastructure failed, it would
have any assurance the real cause is
be deemed unacceptable. Why do you think oil
understood or that any remedies are
spills seem to get a pass on this?
undertaken that are appropriate to the
problem.
Jeff Merkley: Well, I think your analogy
is a good one, and it’s one I’ve been using
A.W.: You grew up in Roseburg, at the
myself. If a commercial jetliner has a
height of its timber economy, and know
problem, all the similar planes are grounded
the impact that a resource-extraction- ®
until the problem is fully understood. It’s an
based economy can have on a local
extraordinarily rare event with oil trains;
economy, in providing reliable, well
we’ve been seeing month after month
paying jobs. What needs to be done
derailment after derailment. There is no
to turn the renewable-energy sector
thorough investigation that fully gets to the
into that sort of powerhouse-type
root of the problem - an application of the
industry so that these lingering
remedy before the trains run out again.
loyalties to fossil fuels, oil, timber g
That’s not what’s happening. One more
and other natural resources ,
derailment, another derailment. That’s what
decline?
we need to change. That’s the impetus
J.M.: We are seeing a huge
behind the bill that I just introduced.
growth in the jobs in the wind
A.W.: Why do you think oil train
sector and the solar power
derailments persist?
sectors. There are more
renewable-energy jobs in
J.M.: I imagine that because they’re
Wyoming today than there S
freight trains and they don’t have
are coal jobs. Coal uses
passengers aboard, they have not been
massive machinery and
viewed in the same framework. The trains
employs very few
do represent a risk to citizens. With the
people. When you’re
Mosier derailment, we were very fortunate,
installing rooftop
because no wind was blowing. If the wind
solar or building wind fl
had been blowing toward the schools just
fields, there is a lot
fl
across the way, who knows what damage
BY AMANDA WALDROUPE
STAFF WRITER
U
more labor involved. We’re seeing a lot of
growth in those jobs. We’d see even more if
the fossil fuel industry didn’t put obstacles
in the way. We should no longer be
subsidizing the fossil fuel world. We
should get rid of massive
subsidies that they benefit
from currently. Because
they do so much less
damage to the
environment, the
things we
should be
subsidizing are
the solar and
the wind
(sectors).
3
There’s so S
much at
stake here.
The scientists
estimate that
we really hit |
catastrophic |
consequences
when
temperatures
ft
warm by more
than two degrees 1
Celsius. We are
halfway there now.
We just got word
that globally, June was
■■I
See MERKLEY,
page 5
U<S. SENATE-PHOTO