U.S. transportation officials rebuked the oil industry Friday for not giving up information regulators say they need to gauge the danger of moving crude by rail, after several accidents highlighted the explosive properties of fuel from the booming oil shale fields on the Northern Plains, AP reported. Department of Transportation officials told The Associated Press they have received only limited data on the characteristics of oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana. "The overall and ongoing lack of cooperation is disappointing, slows progress and certainly raises concerns," the agency said in a statement. "We still lack data we requested and that energy stakeholders agreed to produce within 30 days." Representatives from the American Petroleum Institute refuted the foot-dragging accusation. "We'd like to know what information they're not getting so we can give it to them," said API spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel. API president Jack Gerard said oil companies have been encouraged by the group to share what they know. He said there's more data to come, but added that API does not serve as an industry "library" so it would come from multiple sources. There have been at least four major accidents involving trains carrying crude from the Bakken since production began to boom in 2008. Among them was a derailment last July that killed 47 people and torched a large section of downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec. -- SPA 23:52 LOCAL TIME 20:52 GMT تغريد
