William J. Kemble is reporting for the Daily Freeman new federal regulations will require operators of trains that carry flammable liquids to have emergency response plans. The requirements were developed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration and issued last week, and will take effect in August. Operators of trains "that carry high-hazard flammable commodities, [such as] crude oil, liquid petroleum ... have to adopt and get approved these emergency response plans,” said a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration. The regulations will apply to trains that have “continuous blocks” of 20 or more tank cars loaded with liquid petroleum oil and trains that have 35 or more tanks cars loaded with liquid petroleum oil. The new regulations come in the wake of high-profile accidents that caused death and damage in communities that did not have emergency response plans. Forty-seven people died in Quebec in 2013, when a train carrying crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota derailed in the town of Lac-Mégantic. Trains with flammable liquids regularly travel through Catskill, Saugerties, the town of Ulster, the city of Kingston, Esopus, and Highland. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.