Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh has signed a bill prohibiting new or expanded crude oil terminals within City limits, reports the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN).

The City Council passed the Crude Oil Terminal Prohibition on March 12. According to CCAN:

Additional or expanded terminals would bring more trains carrying crude oil through Baltimore neighborhoods, increasing the likelihood of a catastrophic explosion and enabling expanded oil drilling across North America.

Rail transport of crude oil increased substantially about ten years ago. A handful of headline-catching, catastrophic train derailments ensued, including a train carrying crude oil in Quebec in 2013, resulting in 47 fatalities.

According to Oilprice.com, the Mayor’s signature makes Baltimore the first East Coast city to ban crude oil terminals:

While Baltimore is not the first East Coast city to use zoning code rules to ban crude oil shipments, because South Portland, Maine, banned the action of loading of crude oil onto marine tankers, Baltimore could be the first East Coast city to ban a specific kind of infrastructure—crude oil terminals.