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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The long-awaited oil-by-rail regulations released today are basically a guidebook for the oil and rail industries to continue doing business as usual when it comes to moving explosive Bakken crude ...
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A seemingly innocuous email about two people getting coffeeย in August of 2014ย helps shed light on the behind-the-scenes lobbying efforts to shape the oil-by-rail regulations that have given the oil...
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The West Coast of the United States and Canada is facing an imminent tar sands oil invasion, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). โ€œThe West Coast is about to...
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โ€œThe system is fundamentallyย broken.โ€ Those were the words of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) during an April 14th hearing on oil-by-rail and pipelineย safety. For anyone expecting the soon to be releas...
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โ€œOnce the oil started to sink, it made things a lot more difficult on ourย recovery.โ€ Those were the words of Greg Powell of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during his presentation on March...
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With the recent run of exploding oil train accidents, it isnโ€™t surprising that the rail industry has publicly expressed concern about hauling highly flammable oils like Bakken light crude and dilut...
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With the first crash and explosion of a unit train of tar sands oil in Canada in February, we learned that the conventional wisdom among people covering the oil-by-rail industry regarding the flamm...
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A month ago there was a close call for the oil-by-rail industry. As part of the Cromnibus bill that President Obama signed in December, new oil-by-rail regulations were supposed to be finalized and...
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โ€œI just want to make sure that we are all singing the same tune that we have a very safe industry and we want to work together on improving thatย industry.โ€ Those were the words of Rep. Jeff Denham...
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Sen. John Thune (R-SD), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, recently got a bit overzealous in stumping for the oil and rail industries at a Jan. 28 hearing on...