Justin Mikulka

About

Justin Mikulka is a research fellow at New Consensus. Prior to joining New Consensus in October 2021, Justin reported for DeSmog, where he began in 2014. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.

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On December 4, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it would repealย a critical safety regulation for modern braking systems on the same oil trains which have derailed, spilled oil, caug...
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In another major blow to the West Coast oil-by-rail industry, a Washington state agencyย voted unanimously to recommendย Governor Jay Inslee reject the Vancouver Energy oil terminal.ย Proposed for con...
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Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to fast-track a ruleย that purportsย to make the energy grid more resilient butย whichย in reality will force utili...
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A new study by the National Academy of Sciences concludes that the rail industry should do more to improve the safety of transportingย oil and ethanol by rail, which includesย addressing track safety...
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On July 29, 2013 Thomas J. Herrmann of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) wrote a letter to Jack Gerard, president andย CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The letter was in respon...
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Damning newย testimony fromย an engineerย of the locomotive involved in the deadly 2013 oil trainย disasterย in Lac-Mรฉgantic,ย Canada, reveals several ways corporate cost-cuttingย directly led toย the acci...
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Asย Bloomberg put itย recently, todayย โ€œcrude oil gushes out of the U.S. like never before.โ€ย U.S. exports of crude oil just hit a new record:ย nearly two million barrels per day. And while at DeSmog we...
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A new study published in the peer-reviewedย journal Nature Energy found that 50 percent of newย oil production in America would be unprofitable if not for government subsidies. The study, performed b...
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A new government report finds that only 9 percent of all the rail tank cars transporting flammable liquids last year met the stricter safety requirements of regulations set in 2015, which were mean...
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Ronald Batory โ€” President Trumpโ€™s nominee to lead the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) โ€” will be pushing for the controversialย self-regulatory approach to safety known as โ€œperformance-based re...