mr. mccown? >> guest: training is -- rail is very efficient for a lot of different types of commodities. it takes a lot of volume off of our roads. trains are great for transportation of materials cross country. the transportation network we have, even though it has deficiencies and even though we can point out where it can be improved, is the envy of the world. thanks to president eisenhower with the eisenhower interstate system, with the railroads that build our west and our state-of-the-art pipeline infrastructure system, we can move things around more efficiently than any other country. and just like when there is an accident we need to be saying how do we improve the system not i will never drive again or i will never fly again because it's not realistic. >> host: next call from mike in safety harbor florida. you were on the air. >> caller: thank you c-span. mr. mccown, i appreciate what you're saying at least but i don't have the faith and the federal government to accomplish some of the ta

mr. mccown, we'll give you a chance. but let him finish.uest: most of the oil from canada is not coming from train. it is coming by pipeline. and pipelines, as we know, carry huge risks with them. we have had 6000 pipeline blowout or leaks in just the past two decades. we don't hear about most of them, but let talk about a couple. the kalamazoo river five years ago. 38 miles of that wonderful river in michigan was essentially killed off by a dirty tar sands pipeline blowout. we had a blowout four years ago and the yellowstone river. 42,000 gallons of oil in the yellowstone river. we had another blowout -- we had the same thing happening just last month in the yellowstone river. we had pipeline blowout after blowout, and it does carry a risk with it. it is a bad idea. in his to be denied. p brigham mccown. guest: well, we transport -- there are 42 gallons in a barrel. 11.3 million barrels of oil around the country each year. on average, 32,000 barrels are lost still. you know, by hiking up type line accidents and fear mongering is not going

mr. mccown, what happened in west virginia last week and how serious was it?uest: well, it was obviously sears. anytime we have a transportation accident, derailment, loss of fossil, it is serious. so we need to take it serious. the u.s. uses almost 19 million barrels of crude oil each and every day in our country, and as a consequence, we have to move it. we have to move it from where it is extracted from the ground to our refineries. because we're finding oil in places where we lack traditional pipeline infrastructure, more and more of this material is finding itself on the railroads. although rail is mainly safe when you have had this type of exponential growth in moving crude oil by mail, you know, accidents can happen. they shouldn't happen. and we need to do a better job of have been doing so far. peter: before we get to bob deans, i want to ask you about this. the editorial this with the "washington post." safety goes off the rails. here is the conclusion. the oil industry, predictably, is pushing for less standards and longer timelines to fix its infra