Biden-Buttigieg Put The Brakes On 'Bomb Trains'
President Joe Biden, known as “Amtrak Joe” for his train trips to Washington, D.C., from Delaware as a senator, could reverse the Team Trump approval of “bomb trains” carrying liquefied natural gas.
The Trump rule financially benefits an energy company tied to a hedge fund that loaned millions to the Trump Organization and the Kushner Companies. New York prosecutors are examining those financial ties to Trump.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during his confirmation hearing that he planned to take a “hard look” at the rule.
Liquefied natural gas is even more volatile than Bakken crude oil carried on trains like the one that derailed and caught fire on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Most of the victims had to be identified with DNA samples and dental records. The bodies of five of the people were never recovered.
In April 2019, Trump called for federal rules to be rewritten so trains could carry liquefied natural gas. Drue Pearce, the political appointee who was the deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, helped shepherd the regulation through the agency.
The Biden administration asked a federal judge in February to put lawsuits challenging the rule on hold to give Biden regulators time to review Trump’s rules that affect climate disruption. Biden issued an executive order the day after he was sworn in to review rules that may worsen greenhouse gas emissions.
https://www.dcreport.org/2021/03/19/biden-buttigieg-put-the-brakes-on-bomb-trains/
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