The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 154
The oil industry contends that if new projects like the Keystone Pipeline were
given the greenlight that these incidents would be far fewer. Of course, we all
know that oil pipeline spills occur frequently and can be just as dangerous and
costly as any oil train collision.
Incidentally, it's important to note that the oil industry opposes new federal oil
train safety rules. This is not surprising since the oil industry always denies any
risks associated with petroleum oil products and always opposes new rules designed to make their products safer. Remember, these are the same fine people
who gave us tetraethyl-lead gasoline and reformulated gasoline with MTBE. It
seems like the oil industry has never met a poison they didn't like and wish to
force upon the public.
CLICK image to play video
One sure way to diminish or entirely remove the threat of railroad oil and gasoline disasters is to replace our use of petroleum oil products with a safer alternative. The best and most easily obtained substitute is ethanol and other products made from ethanol, such as bio-diesel. There are four immediate safety
advantages to using ethanol: First, ethanol is nowhere near as explosive and
flammable as gasoline. A collision with an ethanol tank doesn't necessarily
mean that the ethanol will ignite and explode. Ethanol's flashpoint is 55 degrees
F, while Gasoline's flashpoint is -45 degrees F. *
