NORFOLK, Va., May 12, 2015 /3BL Media/ - Sixty-six chemical customers have earned Norfolk Southern Corporation’s (NYSE: NSC) Thoroughbred Chemical Safety Award for 2014. Altogether, the customers safely shipped more than 227,000 carloads of hazardous chemical products over the railroad’s network in 2014.
As a freight rail company that provides transportation services across 22 eastern U.S. states, with links to the global marketplace, Norfolk Southern is uniquely positioned to contribute to reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The environmental advantages of moving consumer goods and other products by rail are well documented in terms of fuel efficiencies and emissions reduction.
To say that the rail industry’s premier training center is in the middle of nowhere is an understatement: Driving east from Pueblo, Colo., it’s 25 miles across desolate flatlands, past the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot, where mustard gas is stored; past prairie dogs and pronghorn antelope; and past a security checkpoint with a huge warning sign for rattlesnakes.
Norfolk Southern has internal controls and procedures in place to ensure that we meet or exceed environmental regulations that apply to the company and its operating facilities. The company complies with an array of federal environmental statutes and programs delegated to state and local governments. Among relevant laws and regulations are the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Oil Pollution Control Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
As part of corporate sustainability efforts, Norfolk Southern looks for opportunities to improve business operations that make good economic sense and benefit the environment. A stormwater reclamation and coal fines removal system installed at our coal terminal in Norfolk, Va., is a model of this “win-win” approach.
Stormwater Recycling Project Serves as a Model for Sustainability Efforts
In a rural Sussex County enclave where turkey vultures seem to outnumber humans, Norfolk Southern is helping The Nature Conservancy grow the largest-ever longleaf pine reforestation project in Virginia.
Gibson Barbee studied environmental engineering in college for the most idealistic reason: “I wanted to make the planet a better place,” he said. Barbee has since tempered his expectations of saving the planet. He is, however, working on making a difference.
Barbee, Norfolk Southern’s senior energy engineer, helped launch our research into battery technologies and has been involved in every stage of development of the NS 999 prototype battery-powered switcher locomotive.
In the quest to conserve fuel and reduce emissions, Norfolk Southern has pioneered industry efforts to develop battery-powered locomotives.
Currently, the company is working on the second generation of our NS 999 electric prototype four-axle switcher locomotive. The NS 999, built on a reused 1969 Electro-Motive Diesel GP 38 platform, is designed to switch railcars in yard operations and is the first all-battery locomotive of its type. In addition to the NS 999, the company continues to research development of a hybrid electric six-axle long-haul locomotive.
