Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin co sponsors legislation that would force immediate retirement or retrofitting of unsafe oil tank cars, compel removed of volatile gases from crude oil before it is loaded, and providing immediate funding to train and equip first responders to cope with an oil train disaster.
The railroads and refineries team up to respond to emergencies in Washington state. Firefighters in Colorado train to respond to a Bakken crude blowup.
Wisconsin citizens sue their own DNR for improperly letting the railroad go ahead on constructing another oil train line.
Minnesota citizens oppose a pipeline that would carry Bakken crude because it endangers aquifers.
A New Jersey railroad bridge, seriously deteriorated, is described in a report as needing only routine maintenance.
In addition to these measures, the Federal Railroad Administration needs to increase the scope and intensity of car and rail inspections, especially on hazmat routes through urban areas. Preventing derailments is the first line of defense against calamity, not pipelines, which are even more hazardous to the environment and water than trains, and whose reliance on eminent domain is increasingly rancorous politically.
Meanwhile, oil train accidents have risen from 1 in 2009 to 144 in 2014. It is no time to be complacent.
Sign the attached petition urging the FRA to vigorously enforce railroad health and safety regulations. Add a comment while you're ato it to counter the railroad lobbies' unrelenting trust-us-we-know-what-we're-doing cant. http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/enforce…

It's time to shut down coal/oil, double down on renewables and start building nuclear. If you give a damn about climate change, you need to do all three.

Slight problem with clarity in wording—the town/port of Valdez, for which the tanker Exxon Valdez was named, was not wiped out by the oil spill. Oil in fact never reached the town at the head of the Valdez Inlet; the tanker ran aground at the mouth of the inlet about 25 miles away. It was of course nevertheless a disaster for the entire area, profoundly affecting wildlife and the fishing industry and covering 11,000 square miles of the Prince William Sound.

@3: In addition, as I recall cleanup efforts on the beach produced more harm that good in some ways with all that pressure washing.

Yeah, that and near-shore applications of then-current formulations of Corexit may have caused more long-term damage than they averted. We learned a lot from that spill, but each new spill has its own unique challenges and exposes new gaps in response, so avoiding them to begin with is the best strategy. Readiness is a perennial problem--having sufficient quantities of both supplies and trained personnel available and getting them to the site quickly in the early stages. Weather is always a wild card. Wind and waves can move or spread oil on- or offshore and overwhelm containment booms within a matter of hours. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio…

It looks like Cantwell is on it:

Mar 05 2015

Cantwell: Icebreakers Crucial to U.S. Arctic Strategy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) heard from witnesses, including the former commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, who said that increasing the U.S. icebreaker fleet is crucial to the United States.

http://www.cantwell.senate.gov/public/in…

Notice that Cantwell and Murray did not sign the Merkley letter objecting to Shell's drilling in the Arctic:

http://www.merkley.senate.gov/download/l…

And Shell's drilling in the Arctic is how it begins:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/busi…