WASHINGTON — The chairmen of the Senate energy and transportation committees on Thursday urged the Obama administration to take ‘‘prompt and decisive’’ action following several train derailments involving crude oil shipments, including a fiery blast in North Dakota last month and an explosion that killed 47 people in Canada last year.
Democratic Senators Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Ron Wyden of Oregon called the derailments alarming and said the administration should evaluate whether federal rules adequately address the risks of carrying crude oil by rail.
The oil boom in the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana has reduced the nation’s reliance on imported oil and brought thousands of jobs. But as companies increasingly rely on trains instead of pipelines to get that oil to refineries in coastal markets, public safety in communities bisected by rail lines has become a concern.