FranAois Laplante-Delagrave/AFP/Getty Images
The recent oil boom in North Dakota has brought the promise of economic prosperity. However, there's a hitch: trains, not pipelines, are the crude oil's primary mode of transportation.
And trains simply aren't as safe as pipelines.
From the story: "Much of North Dakota's oil is being transported by rail, rather than through pipelines, which are the safest way to move crude. Tank carloads of crude are up 50 percent this year from last. Using rail networks has saved the oil and gas industry the time and capital it takes to build new pipelines, but the trade-off is greater risk: Researchers estimates that trains are three and a half times as likely as pipelines to suffer safety lapses."
Read the full investigation at ProPublica.