Derailing Powder River Basin Coal Exports: Legal Mechanisms to Regulate Fugitive Coal Dust From Rail Transportation

Coal trains are known as “black snakes.” The name aptly describes the miles of uncovered rail cars bearing the black cargo as they slither along the tracks. During the journey from coal mines to their final destinations, coal trains shed plumes of coal dust from the tops of the train cars. As the dust spews from the rail cars, it fills the surrounding air with harmful substances like mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, manganese, beryllium, and chromium. When the dust settles, these substances are deposited in soil and water, harming plant, animal, and marine life. Environmental consequences from coal dust are also rooted in railroad safety concerns. Coal dust accumulation in the ballast can destabilize the tracks and contribute to derailments. Derailments impact the environment because the overturned train can spill locomotive fuel and dump thousands of pounds of coal and coal dust, resulting in soil and water contamination. This Comment will discuss the trends that have made exporting coal a viable option for the coal industry and how accommodating the industry’s plans to expand exports will impact the environment. Next, the Comment will explain the history of the regulatory scheme governing the railroads and its preemptive nature. This Comment will then examine two ways to address the issue of fugitive coal dust: first, through the statutory and regulatory authority of the Federal Railroad Administration, and second, through the Clean Air Act. The Comment proposes that states regulate coal dust as particulate matter in their State Implementation Plans. Finally, the Comment explores private citizens’ ability to sue railroad companies under the citizen suit provision

Derailing Powder River Basin Coal Exports: Legal Mechanisms to Regulate Fugitive Coal Dust From Rail Transportation

Coal trains are known as “black snakes.” The name aptly describes the miles of uncovered rail cars bearing the black cargo as they slither along the tracks. During the journey from coal mines to their final destinations, coal trains shed plumes of coal dust from the tops of the train cars. As the dust spews from the rail cars, it fills the surrounding air with harmful substances like mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, manganese, beryllium, and chromium. When the dust settles, these substances are deposited in soil and water, harming plant, animal, and marine life. Environmental consequences from coal dust are also rooted in railroad safety concerns. Coal dust accumulation in the ballast can destabilize the tracks and contribute to derailments. Derailments impact the environment because the overturned train can spill locomotive fuel and dump thousands of pounds of coal and coal dust, resulting in soil and water contamination. This Comment will discuss the trends that have made exporting coal a viable option for the coal industry and how accommodating the industry’s plans to expand exports will impact the environment. Next, the Comment will explain the history of the regulatory scheme governing the railroads and its preemptive nature. This Comment will then examine two ways to address the issue of fugitive coal dust: first, through the statutory and regulatory authority of the Federal Railroad Administration, and second, through the Clean Air Act. The Comment proposes that states regulate coal dust as particulate matter in their State Implementation Plans. Finally, the Comment explores private citizens’ ability to sue railroad companies under the citizen suit provision

Guest: Lee Triming ; Host: Gary Simmonds.

Chapbook with Lee Trimming- Lee Trimming attended Transmissions as part of the Stranger series of lectures- as consequence and follow on from this initial dialogue we produced a chapbook which continued a pictorial and textual dialogue around contingency. Transmission: Host is a series of chapbooks derived from an annual lecture series organised by Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. Each week a host selects, presents, and looks after his or her guest. A critical engagement between host and guest is assumed. There is an ethics of hospitality, of making the stranger welcome. A host has a standard of conduct, and historically, hospitality has been seen as a code, a duty, a virtue, and a law. In this second series, each host invited a guest who was a stranger. Stranger’ implies one who is not known, but also incorporates the foreigner, or indeed, the odd/eccentric/uncanny. Following Jacques Derrida, the stranger is one who is irreconcilably ‘other’ to oneself, but with whom one may co-exist without hostility, to whom one must respond and to whom one is responsible. The stranger reminds one of the other at the heart of one’s being.</p

Perioperative Coagulopathy, Bleeding, and Hemostasis During Cardiac Surgery

Cardiac surgery patients use 10%-25% of the blood products transfused annually in the United States. The transfusion of red blood cells or blood products has been the subject of intense scrutiny over the past 10 years. Bleeding after cardiac surgery can be surgical or nonsurgical and lead to hemodynamic compromise and surgical reexploration. Because hemorrhage and blood product transfusions are associated with multiple negative outcomes, including increased mortality, it is prudent to understand the mechanisms responsible for nonsurgical bleeding. This review focuses on the physiology of the normal coagulation and fibrinolysis, risk factors associated with patients presenting for cardiac surgery, impairments of normal hemostasis associated with cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and potential interventions to reduce perioperative blood loss and blood transfusion. </jats:p