White House balked at regulating explosive gas on oil trains

The White House held back on curbing explosive gas in oil trains last year, Reuters reports.

Current and former administration officials told Reuters that after considering regulations that would have controlled explosive gas in oil trains they decided against it and left it to industry. 

{mosads}Reuters reports the White House balked at addressing the problem, instead leaning on North Dakota’s push to remove the gas, called “light ends.” 

In its own regulations on the safety of tanker cars carrying crude oil, the administration sidestepped tackling the volatile gas.  

“These trains are going all across the country so it absolutely has to be the feds who are in charge,” Karen Darch, mayor of Barrington, Ill., told Reuters.

Barrington’s mayor sees a number of oil and ethanol trains pass through weekly.