On July 6, 2013, a train carrying volatile crude oil from North Dakota exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people and incinerating the downtown. Since then, three oil trains have exploded on the U.S. side of the border, where the surge in domestic oil production now sends millions of trainloads of crude through cities and small towns.
The Weather Channel and InsideClimate News teamed up to investigate the problem of exploding railcars in “Boom: America’s Explosive Oil-by-Rail Problem.” The documentary accompanies an investigation by reporters Marcus Stern and Sebastian Jones, who explain why federal regulations to protect the public have been stalled by the railroads and the oil industry.
Boom: North America’s Explosive Oil-By-Rail Problem from Weather Films on Vimeo.
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
