14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report says that the amount of crude oil that was spilled in the aftermath of rail incidents in the United States this past year is greater than the amount of oil that hit the environment as a result of similar incidents that took place throughout the previous 37 years combined.
To put it in a nutshell, the United States managed to spill more oil in one year than it did in about four decades put together.
All things considered, some might consider this piece of news worthy of being mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The report in question was pieced together by a team of researchers who took the time to analyze and compile data provided by the country's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Oil Price tells us.
The specialists who carried out this investigation say that, according to information at hand, rail cars transporting crude oil across the country lost a total of 1.15 million gallons of their cargo in the year 2013.
What's interesting is that data concerning how much oil spilled in the derailment that occurred in Casselton, North Dakota on December 30 has not yet been provided to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Needless to say, this means that the amount of oil that spilled last year must be greater than the 1.15 million gallons thus far documented.
Then again, 11.5 billion gallons were transported across the country in said year, which means that the success rate of carrying oil by rail was pretty impressive.
By comparison, just 800,000 gallons of crude oil hit ecosystems in the United States as a result of rail incidents that took place between 1975 and 2012.
In fact, specialists say that, in 8 of the years included in this time frame, not one single drop of oil hit the ground. What's more, there were 5 years when just one gallon, maybe even less, was spilled.
In case anyone was wondering, the increase in the amount of oil lost in rail incidents in the United States is due to the fact that transporting this energy source in this manner has pretty much become common practice.