White House blames Trump administration and Republicans over East Palestine, Ohio spill

[Celerity]

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/22/white-house-blame-trump-gop-east-palestine-spill/11322623002/

WASHINGTON — The White House is firing back at Republicans following the toxic East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, blaming the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress for undoing Obama-era rail safety measures designed to avert such disasters.

The aggressive rebuttal came as former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine on Wednesday and Republicans increasingly attack the Biden administration, especially Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, for its response to the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment that unleased toxic chemicals.

“Congressional Republicans and former Trump Administration officials owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists when they dismantled Obama-Biden rail safety protections as well as EPA powers to rapidly contain spills,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Among safety rollbacks cited by the White House, the Trump administration withdrew a 2015 proposal to require advanced braking systems on trains carrying highly flammable materials, ended regular safety audits of railroads and scrapped a proposal to require at least two crew members on freight trains.

snip

[CatWoman]

1. it's about time the Dems slapped them upside the head with ACTUAL FACTS

[poli-junkie]

2. Excellent push back!

Keep it going Dems!

[Scrivener7]

3. Oh, good! Joe is very good at this. Not least because he lets them dole out the rope, then he

hangs them.

[questionseverything]

4. So 151 cars on a train and legally only one worker is required

[MichMan]

5. Has the NTSB revised their statement from last Thurday ?

They said then that the change in the braking system was NOT a cause of the derailment as it would have not been required on this train anyway. Here was the statement last week.

In a rare series of posts on Twitter on Thursday evening, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy issued "a message to the community" as well as "a plea to those spreading misinformation."

She added: "Nothing...nothing is more important than accuracy at a moment like this, which is why the NTSB is deliberate in our approach to investigations. Credibility is ESSENTIAL to our lifesaving mission. The NTSB process WORKS.

The NTSB chair addressed speculation that a rule on electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes -- if implemented -- would have prevented the train derailment, which she said was "FALSE."

"The ECP braking rule would've applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars," she tweeted. "This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn't have had ECP brakes.

Looks like that statement must have been false based on the recent statement by the administration. Has anyone seen if the NTSB has since issued a correction?

[Celerity]

6. The Rethugs controlled both chambers and they allowed the industry lobbyists to write the rule

so narrowly that it would not have applied to the East Palestine train.

[MichMan]

7. My question is about the braking rule change

According to the OP, the administration said the Trump rule change on braking was a cause of the derailment, while the NTSB statement last week said it was not. Further down in the link the NTSB chair repeated the earlier statement.

Clearly, both can't be correct.

[Celerity]

14. That train would not have had the new style brakes, as the rule was written so narrowly

due to the Rethugs controlling Congress back in 2015. I thought I was clear on that.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy is correct about that.

Did you even read my OP article?

It clearly states this:

I do not know if there were other reasons for the derailment that were directly due to Trump's deregulation actions.

[MichMan]

16. Yes I did read it.

Why the mention of this part below since it had already been dismissed as a factor ? That's why I asked if the NTSB had changed their analysis. It doesn't appear that they have.

Among safety rollbacks cited by the White House, the Trump administration withdrew a 2015 proposal to require advanced braking systems on trains carrying highly flammable materials

[Celerity]

17. I assume because that action HAS made qualifying trains more dangerous as well

I posted 4 paragraphs, (from the start, as I do in 95 per cent plus of most of my OPs)

but if you connect your snip to the very next paragraph (that I just posted in my previous reply to you) it is clear

[MichMan]

18. Hopefully all those rules have already been going through the process of being rescinded

[DashOneBravo]

21. She was on with Jake Tapper

She hasn’t changed her position.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=Xb8_jZ-I6LaUPQBVZTmFHQ

[malaise]

8. Excellent

Rec

[Emile]

9. Deregulating Trump shows up at his crime scene and

points his finger.

[Justice matters.]

13. The arse-sonist who started the fire showed up at his crime scene and

blamed the firefighters who earlier tried to prevent the fire.

[Emile]

19. Exactly

[Evolve Dammit]

10. Were the chemicals in the rail cars really shipped as "Non-Haz" (Non-Hazardous)?? If so, somebody is

liable. That is more than an "oversight" and could have criminal implications. Stay tuned. EPA CID will find out.

[republianmushroom]

11. a little slow with this aren't we.

Should have been out the day after the accident.

[rickford66]

12. Republican deregulation caused the accident. Full stop.

[Cha]

15. Kick for Facts.. TY!

[Deminpenn]

20. Doesn't matter, residents there are full on Trumpers

Anyway, the cause of the derailment is already known, a failed axle or bearing on one of the tanker cars. It was reported locally that the failure was detected by a hotbox and emergency braking procedure was started. There were also two crew on the train plus a third person who was not part of the regular crew, but there for another reason, but can't recall what it was.

The questions for NTSB are when and where was the pending failure detected by the track hot boxes. It was reported locally that there is video from a camera at a business in Salem that shows sparks coming off a car in the vicinity of a hot box. Did that hot box fail? That answer is TBD. My other question is who owned the tanker cars? Were they NS-owned tanker cars, owned by another RR or owned by the company shipping the vinyl chloride?