Earlier this month Targa Resources announced it was withdrawing its plans to build an oil export facility in South Baltimore. Activists from numerous community groups had fought the plans for more than two years and cheered the news.
"This is a victory for Baltimore communities and for the climate," said Jon Kenney, healthy communities organizer with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
A Baltimore resident myself, I too had joined several protests and attended several community meetings to voice my opposition to Targa’s plans, which would’ve meant a huge number of oil trains transporting more than 383 million gallons of crude oil right through downtown Baltimore and my neighborhood every year. That’s millions of gallons of oil every day!
Across the U.S. and Canada, we’ve seen the results of deadly oil train explosions and derailments – and neighborhoods across Baltimore united in opposition to Targa’s proposal. The oil train routes in Baltimore go through residential areas as well as right through the popular downtown area, near the sports stadiums and major tourist attractions (see the map to the right).
“It would’ve been very risky to increase the Bakken crude oil shipments through the densely-settled neighborhoods of Baltimore – especially given the rail accidents that’ve already occurred in the city over the years,” said Leah Kelley of the Environmental Integrity Project.
For example, just this month a chemical train derailed in the city’s Howard Street tunnel, forcing numerous street closures.
As I’ve noted in previous blog posts on this issue, there are already a number of oil and chemical trains that go through Baltimore and my South Baltimore neighborhood of Morrell Park. I knew the risks when I moved there some 10 years ago. Yet the idea of adding even more risky oil train traffic was very frightening to me and to so many of my neighbors.
“It just takes one train to derail,” said Kenney of CCAN, an organization that put an immense amount of time and effort into fighting the oil train export facility.
“It’s been really inspiring to see communities come together. Communities from all over the city are interested in this issue because the trains and rail lines connect them all. They don’t want oil trains running through their communities. This victory gives us that momentum, and it’s a welcome sign that grassroots activism works. We submitted hundreds of public comments from people all over the city, turned people out at city hearings, and more.”
The next step is pushing an ordinance through the Baltimore City Council that would require health and safety studies about the oil trains moving through the city.
“This helps inform the communities what happens if a train does explode,” said Kenney. “It’s a first step so people can understand the risk of these oil trains, so people can be educated in case any new terminals are proposed.”
I’m excited to help keep up the drumbeat for oil train safety in Charm City and to see the grassroots activism coalescing more around this issue every day.