Have you heard about this scheme to route up to 10 trains per day carrying heated railcars full of waxy crude oil through treacherous Glenwood Canyon and Denver… along the Colorado River… over high mountain passes… and amongst our tinder-dry forests?  There are so many things wrong with this plan, it is hard to even know where to start!

• with an average of 1700 train derailments per year in the US,³ it is nearly inevitable that this “oil train” will suffer a derailment over its lifetime, spilling it’s toxic cargo – possibly killing fish & wildlife, causing irreversible contamination, blocking I70 and harming Colorado’s tourist and farming economy.
• sparks from train wheels are known to cause wildfires. Train derailments and resultant explosions of highly flammable cargo can also cause wildfires.
• constructing 88 new miles of railway (at a cost of $1.5 Billion) and re-activating dormant stretches will do permanent damage to 10,000 acres of land designated wilderness/roadless, blast 3 new tunnels, affect 400 streams and disrupt endangered wildlife habitat.⁴
• this new rail system (with 10,000 foot long oil trains) will allow 4 times the amount of tar sands crude oil to reach overseas and out-of-state markets, resulting in increased oil production, drilling 3330 new wells, and more oil use (6 coal plants’ yearly carbon emissions)⁵ – thereby causing more climate disasters – just when we need to stop using fossil fuels.
• there are no comprehensive federal regulations that dictate how long trains can be and how they are configured (# and placement of locomotives, #of full and empty cars, order of cars etc.).  This is especially worrisome considering the fact that long trains with mixed freight cause a higher rate of derailment on inclines and curves – and the Uinta Basin oil trains running through Colorado’s mountains are expected to be VERY long (up to 2 miles in length)⁶ PDF