A wave of Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of a train derailment that released toxic chemicals into the air in East Palestine, Ohio, is set to peak on Wednesday when former President Donald Trump visits the disaster-stricken village of 4,000.
So far, however, the broadsides haven’t been anything close to preventing accidents or weakening the GOP’s grip on the railroad industry, which has relentlessly and successfully pushed costs and rolled back regulations during Trump’s four years. office.
“A lot of people who are looking for political opportunity are among the people who have gone to the industry multiple times,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a conference call with reporters Monday night when asked about Trump’s visit. “They have fought safety regulations on trains and hazmat tooth and nail.” (Buttigieg did not mention Trump by name, which would have violated Hatch Act restrictions on what federal employees can say about politics.)
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), JD Vance (Ohio) and Ted Cruz (Texas) have all criticized Buttigieg’s handling of the derailment, but none responded to HuffPost on Tuesday when asked if they would support Buttigieg’s rail safety measures. roll out or if they have an alternative proposal.
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), a vocal critic of Biden who represents East Palestine, on Tuesday rejected a direct call for stricter rail regulations, saying action toward accountability would depend on the findings of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the derailment.
“It will dictate whether there are laws, regulations that need to be changed, whether there are rules that are broken,” he said during a press conference in East Palestine. “We don’t know anything yet, and we won’t know until the NTSB releases its report.”
The silence on the actual safety proposal shows how GOP officials — even those who claim to want to lead the party in a more populist direction, such as Rubio and Vance — are unwilling to back down from the rail industry’s fight against additional safety measures, even in the face of a disaster that is plaguing East Palestinians. .
The nearly 2-mile Norfolk Southern train that derailed and caught fire on February 3 was carrying toxic and flammable materials, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, an organic chemical commonly used in the production of plastics. Fearing a catastrophic explosion, the authorities did what they described as a “controlled burning” of vinyl chloride three days after the accident – a controversial decision that has left area residents fearing potential long-term health and environmental risks.
Indeed, Trump’s visit seems aimed more at criticizing President Joe Biden and Buttigieg and amplifying the public response of senior administration officials to the crisis – Buttigieg took 10 days to publicly acknowledge the derailment – rather than offering assistance or policy proposals. (Trump could receive a hero’s welcome. Columbiana County, where East Palestine is located, gave more than 70% of the vote in the 2020 election.)
“You have the president going to Ukraine, and you have people in Ohio who need help,” Trump said at an event at the Hilton Hotel not far from the Mar-a-Lago social club in Florida.
The former president swooping to politicize the disaster is unprising, especially now that he has opened a bid for a second term as president. However, Trump’s legacy of gutting regulations, including rail safety rules, and botching and politicizing the Federal disaster response while in the White House offered whatever advice he could on the irony of the Ohio disaster.
“The Trump administration went back and killed some of the regulations that had been in place; in many cases, they just stopped working on the regulations altogether,” said Sarah Feinberg, head of the Federal Railroad Administration in the last year of the Barack Obama administration. “The impression that the security apparatus gets is that what the industry wants, the industry gets.”
In 2018, at the urging of rail giants and industry lobbyists, the Trump administration repealed an Obama administration rule requiring electronically controlled pneumatic brakes — advanced braking technology — on trains carrying crude oil and other hazardous materials. (The Obama-era braking rules, which came after a series of fiery train accidents, won’t apply to derailed trains in East Palestine, but rail experts toward investigative news outlet The Lever that the Ohio crash would have been less severe if the train had upgraded brakes.)
The industry also successfully lobbied the Trump administration to block Obama-era efforts requires at least two crew members in most trains.
In comments submitted to the Obama administration’s Department of Transportation in 2017, Norfolk Southern Corp., the company that launched the train on February 3, highlighted the rules that it said “must be repealed, replaced, suspended, or modified” and wrote that “the future of railroads and railroad safety based on technological innovation – if the regulatory regime does not stifle but encourage it.
Buttigieg’s proposals include increasing the amount the Department of Transportation can fine for violations, requiring at least two crew members on each train as a safety measure — the industry has fought the crew size mandate — and bringing back the 2025 deadline for railroads to use safer tank cars. . Most changes require congressional action, and many are strongly opposed by the rail industry.
Adding to calls to roll back Obama-era brake rules that Trump repealed, Biden’s Department of Transportation has said legislation passed in 2015 handcuffs the agency from doing so.
“Republicans in the House and Senate require a cost-benefit analysis that allows the Trump administration to repeal the rule in 2017, which is now very challenging to roll back the rule,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson recently told HuffPost. That’s cost-benefit analysis ultimately done that cost of electronic brake rule outweighed the benefits – finding that essentially forced DOT Trump to cancel the rule.
Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
The Biden administration remains under fire for its response to the crisis, with Rubio insisting Buttigieg is “MIA” on the derailment as part of a back-and-forth with the transportation secretary, who on Monday night blasted Rubio earlier. Sign in to the letter that describes the industry’s talking points.
“They lied to the media claiming the 2021 letter asking for more track inspections was a letter asking for deregulation,” Rubio wrote on Twitter. “He is an incompetent who only focuses on fantasy about his political future and should be fired.”
At letter posted last week, Rubio and Vance zero in “railroading precision scheduled,” the style of hyper-efficient rail transport adopted by major rail companies in the instance of Wall Street. Unions and left-wing industry critics have long argued that PSR, as it is known, increases security risks.
“Current and former railroad workers, industry observers, and reform advocates have pointed to precision-scheduled railroading (PSR), in which rail companies such as Norfolk Southern improve efficiency and reduce costs by moving more freight with fewer workers, as a potential contributor to accident,” the couple wrote to Buttigieg.
However, since then, no one has suggested additional reforms that could challenge the industry.
But it’s clear the administration has decided to immediately take on the railroads, traditionally a powerful but low-profile lobby in Washington.
“Rail companies have spent millions of dollars fighting common safety regulations,” Biden wrote on Tuesday on Twitter. “And it has worked. This is more than a train derailment or a spill of toxic waste – it’s a year of opposition to safety measures coming home to roost.
The American Association of Railroads, which represents the nation’s largest commercial railroads, suggested new policy proposals should wait until after the NTSB’s investigation.
“Investigators In NTSB which is continuing to work to identify the root cause of the accident and contributing factors,” AAR President Ian Johnson said. “The investigation must continue without politics and speculation so that the NTSB’s findings can guide additional measures that could have prevented this accident.”
The president of AAR himself is proof of the revolving door between the railroad industry and Congress: From 2009 to 2013, he was the top staff for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (DW.Va.), who chaired the committee with the supervision of railroads.
At least one Republican close to the Ohio disaster and who benefited from railroad industry donations has expressed shock, even anger, that more regulations aren’t on the books to protect communities from rail disasters that are ruining lives in rural eastern Ohio. .
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) called “doesn’t make sense“If the Norfolk Southern Train does not qualify as a “high-hazard flammable train” – a federal classification that imposes speed limits and other safety requirements. He calls on Congress to act to address regulatory deficiencies.
Of the 50 train cars damaged or destroyed by the fire, 20 contained hazardous materials, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which is now responsible for the cleanup.
“It’s fundamentally wrong when a train like this can come into the state and the current law, regardless of what it’s transporting, doesn’t require them to notify state or local officials,” DeWine said Tuesday at a press conference.
The incident “reinforces the importance that rail safety is a higher priority than ever,” DeWine added “We need to look at rail safety.
A month before the derailment, Norfolk Southern gave DeWine $10,000 — the maximum amount — to finance the inauguration, WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio, reported. reported.