New York World reporter Harry Stevens joined the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC to discuss the U.S. Coast Guard’s failure to implement new inspection and safety rules to govern the tugboats responsible for transporting barges full of crude oil down the Hudson River, a relatively new and growing industry.
While fiery train derailments across the U.S. and Canada have drawn New Yorkers’ attention to the dangers of transporting crude oil by rail, there has been much less focus on the potential dangers of shipping oil down the Hudson River by barge. But some environmentalists worry that a crude oil spill would wreak havoc on a river that has recovered well after enduring decades of industrial pollution that nearly destroyed it.
