Current:Home > MarketsJudge orders BNSF to pay Washington tribe nearly $400 million for trespassing with oil trains-LoTradeCoin
Judge orders BNSF to pay Washington tribe nearly $400 million for trespassing with oil trains
View Date:2024-12-24 07:42:22
SEATTLE (AP) — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial early this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing and how much it should be required to disgorge.
The tribe sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby facility. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish.
Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S.
veryGood! (14969)
Related
- Smithfield agrees to pay $2 million to resolve child labor allegations at Minnesota meat plant
- How many people voted in the 2024 Michigan primary? Here's voter turnout data for the 2024 race
- Cam Newton remains an All-Pro trash talker, only now on the 7-on-7 youth football circuit
- Ex-US Olympic fencer Ivan Lee arrested on forcible touching, sexual abuse, harassment charges
- Northern Taurid meteor shower hits peak activity this week: When and where to watch
- Suki Waterhouse's Sweet Baby Bump Photo Will Have You Saying OMG
- How genetically modified pigs could end the shortage of organs for transplants
- A pregnant Amish woman was killed in her Pennsylvania home. Police have no suspects.
- Why Amanda Seyfried Traded Living in Hollywood for Life on a Farm in Upstate New York
- Conservationist Aldo Leopold’s last remaining child dies at 97
Ranking
- Japan to resume V-22 flights after inquiry finds pilot error caused accident
- We owe it to our moms: See who our Women of the Year look to for inspiration
- Visitors line up to see and smell a corpse flower’s stinking bloom in San Francisco
- From balmy to brrr: Wisconsin cities see a nearly 60-degree temperature swing in under 24 hours
- 2 striking teacher unions in Massachusetts face growing fines for refusing to return to classroom
- Nashville Uber driver fatally shoots passenger after alleged kidnapping
- You Won’t Believe the Names JoJo Siwa Picked for Her Future Kids
- Ryan Gosling performing Oscar-nominated song I'm Just Ken from Barbie at 2024 Academy Awards
Recommendation
-
DWTS' Gleb Savchenko Shares Why He Ended Brooks Nader Romance Through Text Message
-
It's not 'all in their head.' Heart disease is misdiagnosed in women. And it's killing us.
-
Washington state lawmakers consider police pursuit and parents’ rights initiatives
-
Alabama police find a woman dead on a roadside. Her mom says she was being held hostage.
-
After Baltimore mass shooting, neighborhood goes full year with no homicides
-
Kia, Hyundai car owners can claim piece of $145M theft settlement next week, law firm says
-
Comedian Richard Lewis, who recently starred on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' dies at 76
-
WWE star Virgil, born Mike Jones, dies at age 61