Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, attributed a portion of the recent derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals in Ohio to the Trump administration’s decision to reverse a little-known safety rule.
Buttigieg said Tuesday night that the Trump administration’s action had limited his agency’s ability to take many measures to increase rail safety through “record investments.” A rule mandating the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on trains hauling specific hazardous chemicals was withdrawn by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in 2018, citing a lack of compelling evidence for the technology’s benefits.
Buttigieg tweeted, “I wanted to share more about what we’ve been doing in this area in light of the East Palestine incident and its impact on hundreds of neighbors. We’re seeing lots of newfound or renewed (and welcome) interest in our work on rail safety.
The transportation secretary said, “We are using the tools we have to keep people safe, but we are bound by law on some aspects of rail regulation (like the brake rule repealed by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a bill approved by Congress in 2015). Additionally, I’m always willing to collaborate with Congress to strengthen (or, in some cases, restore) our ability to address rail safety issues.
On Tuesday, local hazardous materials expert Sil Caggiano told Fox News, “the railroad company is accountable for this and for these folks who went back to their homes.” “It should have been tested in their homes. Their residences needed to be cleaned. These folks were treated unfairly from the beginning in an effort to lessen this.”
This appears to be a nuclear winter, he continued. “Pretty much, sure, we chemically destroyed this village.”
Buttigieg, on the other hand, has come under fire for his delay in reacting to the derailment. He postponed speaking about the issue for ten days, but when he finally did, he vowed to “use all available authorities to establish accountability and continue to encourage safety.”
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, passed by Congress and signed by former President Barack Obama in December 2015, preceded the rule change that Buttigieg partially attributed to the Trump administration.
According to the Government Publishing Office, the Act established a new procedure for the DOT to create an updated regulatory impact analysis (RIA) linked to the ECP brake provision. This procedure includes independent investigation and testing. In 2018, the DOT declared that in no scenario considered it was envisaged that the ECP brake regulations would be cost-beneficial.
The Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will use the investigation results and all applicable authorities to ensure accountability and improve safety; a DOT spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “[The National Transportation Safety Board] will look to the investigation results and use all relevant authorities to ensure accountability and improve safety,” the spokesperson added.
The statement continued, “Republicans in the House and Senate mandated a cost-benefit analysis on the rule in 2015, which permitted the Trump administration to repeal it in 2017. It is now difficult to reinstate the regulation in its prior form due to threats of litigation and opposition in Congress.
“After the 2015 rule was published, the rule incorporating the RIA was contested in 5 different Federal Circuits, and Congress promptly moved to void the regulation, making it more challenging to reconsider the rationale for forwarding a rule under the Administrative Procedure Act. FRA and PHMSA will assess what should be done to prevent a repeat of the incident while awaiting the findings of the investigation.”
