ST. PAUL (AP) — Recent crude oil train catastrophes in North Dakota and Canada show that Minnesota needs to beef up its ability to protect its communities from similar disasters, a pair of lawmakers said Wednesday.

 

Against the backdrop of a large rail yard in St. Paul, Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble outlined a bill they plan to introduce at the start of the upcoming legislative session that would impose a fee of about one-one hundredth of 1 cent per gallon of crude oil transported across Minnesota by rail or pipeline. The Minneapolis Democrats said the fee would raise $15 million to $30 million a year to help state agencies and local authorities with planning and training for potential oil spills.

 

The state's ability to respond to oil emergencies is "woefully inadequate due to a lack of preparedness and a lack of resources," Hornstein told reporters.

 

The drilling  boom that's made North Dakota the country's No. 2 oil producing state behind Texas has led to a boom in crude oil shipments by rail, because existing pipeline networks can't handle the volume. The shipments involve long "unit trains" that typically haul around 100 tanker cars each to refineries elsewhere.