Businesses across Casselton, N.D., locked their doors last week. It wasn't part of a New Year's Eve celebration, but a citywide shutdown after a series of massive explosions resulting from a collision involving a mile-long train carrying crude oil. The burning plumes of black smoke rained choking fumes throughout the town of 2,400 while the local sheriff's office recommended a total evacuation.

No one died, and for that we should be thankful. As the town returns to normal, it isn't likely that much will change for the booming energy economy. Despite this disaster, the oil will continue to flow.

It kept flowing in October after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Alberta, Canada. It kept flowing in July after a train carrying oil in Quebec derailed, causing a blast that killed at least 42 people and destroyed more than 30 buildings. After all, petroleum is still the lifeblood of the global economy, and the oil must flow.

Renewable sources of energy grow every year, and natural gas can be a bridge to that cleaner energy future. But until we're on the other side, safety and efficiency will have to temper the dangerous power we harness in crude oil. Part of that safety means encouraging pipelines, which are routinely the safest way to move oil and gas across our country.


Almost 500,000 miles of pipeline crisscross our country, doing their daily work with routine reliability. But as Houston Chronicle reporter Zain Shauk wrote for, a lack of pipelines near new oil and gas development have forced companies to rely on rail. So when those good-hearted but wrong-headed folks protest pipelines, they're not stopping the oil, they're just forcing it into riskier railcars. Pipelines are not without flaw, prone to leaks and disasters of their own.

But after another year of Keystone debates, train disasters and predictions of 50 more years of petroleum dominance, environmentalists from the White House down should take a sober look at the numbers and contemplate just how many more train disasters they want to risk for want of new pipelines.

— Houston Chronicle