Federal Restricted Distribution Information on Crude Oil Incident Preparedness

Thanks to the folks a PublicIntelligence.net I ran across an interesting publication from some sort of joint FEMA-DOT-EPA interagency team. It is marked ‘For Official Use Only’ so personnel with federal security clearances should probably avoid downloading the document (under the Obama Snowden Doctrine, which to be fair is a continuation of the Bush Wikileaks Doctrine) or becoming involved in any public discussion of the document because of the potential adverse effects on one’s security clearance.

The document looks at issues associated with responding to crude oil train accidents. It includes discussions on:

∙ Key observations on crude by rail preparedness from discussions with states;

∙ Information on upcoming exercise series;

∙ Federally supported training options; and

∙ Additional crude by rail response resources from Federal agencies.

There are two new resources being developed of potential interest (in addition to the standard and well known federal emergency response resources) that are listed in this document. The first is a new FEMA exercise looking at crude oil response as part of the Agency’s Operation Safe Delivery series of exercises. The second is a set of new information aids from PHMSA called Transportation Rail Incident Preparedness & Response (TRIPR) information modules. The FEMA program is due in the Fall and the PHMSA modules later this month.

As to why anyone in their right mind would mark a document like this For Official Use Only (FOUO) is entirely beyond me. There is no sensitive information in this document beyond web links and the telephone number of the National Response Center hotline. It looks like it is just part of an overarching desire on the part of the Federal Government to control emergency response information. More likely it is just a bad habit that really needs its very own 12-step reform program.