AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Legislature is considering a bill that would repeal an earlier act that created confidentiality for information about hazardous material transported on railroads.
LD1937, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) and co-sponsored by Sen. Richard A. Bennett (R-Portland), would repeal the bill passed in 2015. The Bangor Daily News, as part of an editorial supporting the new bill, says the earlier legislation was vetoed by then-Gov. Paul LePage, but the veto was overridden. It was intended to aid in sharing information with first responders, but contained no actual requirement to do so, according to the newspaper.
The new bill, presented as emergency legislation, would take effect upon approval, rather than in the usual 90 days after passage. It is in response to a CPKC derailment and fire in a remote area of northern Maine that injured three crew members [see “Fire chief calls it a ‘miracle’…,” Trains News Wire, April 17, 2023]. Three locomotives and nine cars derailed in that incident, but cars that did not derail included hazardous materials.
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