Disasters

"Hackers have made the energy industry a favorite target."

"Families of victims of the Lac-Mégantic train disaster involved in a class-action lawsuit voted unanimously in favour of the settlement package presented to them on Tuesday."

"A divided federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by a coalition of environmental groups to revoke federal approval of Royal Dutch Shell Plc's (RDSa.L) oil spill response plans related to drilling on Alaska's remote Arctic coast."

"Clean-up costs associated with a Californian oil pipeline rupture that dumped as much as 2,400 barrels of crude onto a pristine stretch of coastline and into the Pacific Ocean have exceeded $60 million, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday."

"The United States on Monday filed a proposed settlement requiring Enbridge Inc to complete natural resource restoration projects and pay about $4 million following its 2010 oil pipeline spill in Michigan, the Justice Department said."

"A Texas company whose ruptured pipeline created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years had assured the government that a break in the line while possible was "extremely unlikely" and state-of-the-art monitoring could quickly detect possible leaks and alert operators, documents show."

"The nomination of Marie Therese Dominguez, President Obama's pick to lead the federal agency that oversees pipelines, was greeted with surprise and uncertainty by pipeline safety experts." "If confirmed, Dominguez would take over an underfunded, understaffed and beleaguered agency that has faced criticism of cozy ties with industry."

"An oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 383,000 litres (101,000 gallons) of crude near Santa Barbara in May had been allowed to corrode to a tiny fraction of its original thickness, federal regulators have said."

"While the global fracking boom has stabilized North America’s energy prices, Chicago — America’s third largest city and the busiest crossroads of the nation’s railroad network — has become ground zero for the debate over heavy crude moved by oil trains."