On July 6, activists in Sacramento held a vigil memorializing the 47 people killed in Canada in the Lac-Mégantic Disaster three years ago. The Sacramento Oil Trains Coalition, including 350 Sacramento, ANSWER, Sac Activist School, and STAND, organized the event. The Central Valley rally and vigil was one of over 40 actions the same week across the U.S. demanding a halt to plans to run these explosive “bomb trains,” carrying fracked Bakken crude oil from South Dakota, through cities across the nation.

Valerie Williams, a South Sacramento homeowner and student at California State University Sacramento (CSUS), noted that both Sacramento City College and CSUS are located within the blast zones of the oil trains. Railroad cars filled with crude oil have been moving through Sacramento over the past several years as they head south to a transfer station outside Bakersfield and west to refineries in Richmond. Williams said her husband had recently witnessed a train with 30 cars carrying crude oil move through Sacramento.

The Valero Refining Company, a subsidiary of the San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, has applied to run two trains daily through Sacramento to its plant in Benicia. The Benicia City Planning Commission rejected Valero’s request this February, but the company has appealed the decision.

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See Also: Arrests in Martinez as Californians demonstrate against oil trains (2015) | Benicians win first victory in opposition to crude-by-rail 'bomb trains' (2014)