Regulation & Environment

摘要

Like the US rail industry, barge operators have experienced a surge in business thanks in large part to the Bakken boom, transporting crude from the pipeline-deficient Midwest to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Also like the rail industry, the barge industry has seen a recent spate of accidents, the most recent a March 22 collision between a Kirby Inland Marine Corp.-owned barge carrying fuel oil and a bulk carrier that spilled 4,000 barrels and closed the busy Houston Shipping Channel for several days. But unlike the rail industry, the barge industry is not seeing a major push for tighter safety rules, as federal regulators and lawmakers appear satisfied that current laws governing waterborne shipments of crude, largely implemented in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, are sufficient.