DESCRIPTION:
I'm really concerned about not only coal trains, but the increase in oil train traffic along Puget Sound. So, I wrote this song "Oil Train," and have been doing some research on it, and decided to make a little on-the-fly. slightly-tongue-in-cheek but very concerned presentation of what I came up with.

Domestic oil production is ramping up, and with it, the transport of oil by rail across the country. Domestic oil being transported by rail has increased 10X since 2008. A large reservoir of oil comes from the Bakken Shale oil field in North Dakota, where it is fracked from the ground. Fracking is highly destructive - among a litany of its environmentally damaging consequences is increased seismic activity - as in, earthquakes.

Trains derail. More trains rolling, means more derailments. Derailments of oil trains increase the potential for environmental havoc from both oil spills and/or uncontrollable explosions, fire and destruction like we've seen most recently in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Casselton, North Dakota and Lynchburg Virginia - those events happening in 2013 and early 2014.

A good deal of the oil harvested from the Bakken Shale travels by rail, through the entirety of the Columbia River Basin to the west coast where the rails diverge on routes north and south.. Heading north, the oil train travels along the coastline to refineries along Putget Sound, Seattle area; Bellingham; Blaine; Vancouver B.C. Canada, and the Stait of Juan de Fuca and the entire Fraser Valley Watershed.

Earthquakes. Oil Spills. Water depletion. Explosions. Coal pollution. How many environmental disasters can we pile up on one another?