Political Opportunity: After Weakening Critical Rail Safety Rules, Trump Heads To East Palestine

A wave of Republican criticism of the Biden administrations handling of a train derailment that launched toxic chemicals into the air in East Palestine, Ohio, is set to culminate on Wednesday when former President Donald Trump visits the disaster-stricken village of 4,000.

So far, however, the broadsides have not turned into anything resembling action that could prevent crashes or break the GOPs arm-in-arm embrace of the railroad industry, which relentlessly and successfully pushed to cut costs and roll back regulations during Trumps four years in office.

A lot of the folks who seem to find political opportunity there are among those who sided with the industry time and time again, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a conference call with reporters Monday night when asked about Trumps visit. They have fought safety regulations on trains and hazmat tooth and nail. (Buttigieg did not mention Trump by name, which would violate the Hatch Act limits on what federal employees can say about politics.)

Transportation Sec. Buttigieg on former President Trump's planned visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Wednesday:

\"I don't know exactly what he's planning to do there, especially since his administration was anti-regulation and pro-industry every step of the way.\" pic.twitter.com/FSBCcHP1h3

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Transportation Sec. Buttigieg on former President Trump's planned visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Wednesday:

"I don't know exactly what he's planning to do there, especially since his administration was anti-regulation and pro-industry every step of the way." pic.twitter.com/FSBCcHP1h3
CBS News (@CBSNews) February 21, 2023

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), J.D. Vance (Ohio) and Ted Cruz (Texas) have all criticized Buttigiegs handling of the derailment, but none responded to HuffPost on Tuesday when asked if they would support a set of rail safety measures Buttigieg rolled out or if they had alternative proposals.

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), a vocal Biden critic who represents East Palestine, on Tuesday dismissed immediate calls for stricter rail regulations, saying actions toward accountability will hinge on the findings of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the derailment.

That will dictate whether there are laws, regulations that need to be changed, whether there were rules that were violated, he said during a news conference in East Palestine. We dont know any of that yet, and we wont know that until NTSB releases its report.

The silence on actual safety proposals 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 reluctant to step back from the rail industrys battle against additional safety measures, even in the wake of a significant disaster that has terrified East Palestine residents.

The nearly 2-mile Norfolk Southern train that derailed and caught fire on Feb. 3 was carrying toxic and flammable materials, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride, a common organic chemical used in the production of plastics. Fearing a catastrophic explosion, authorities conducted what they described as a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride three days after the crash a controversial decision that has left area residents to fear potential long-term health and environmental risks.

Indeed, Trumps visit appears aimed more at criticizing President Joe Biden and Buttigieg and capitalizing on senior administration officials delayed public response to the crisis Buttigieg took 10 days to publicly acknowledge the derailment rather than offering any sort of assistance or policy proposal. (Trump could receive a heroes welcome. Columbiana County, where East Palestine is located, gave him more than 70% of its vote in the 2020 election.)

You have a president going to Ukraine, and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help, Trump said at an event at a Hilton Hotel not far from his Mar-a-Lago social club in Florida.

Trump, speaking at a Hilton in Palm Beach, criticizes Biden for going to Ukraine but not Ohio (you might recall that Trump was impeached for trying to extort the Ukrainian government) pic.twitter.com/j2NLOGl51M

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2023","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Aaron Rupar","author_url":"https://twitter.com/atrupar","cache_age":86400,"description":"Trump, speaking at a Hilton in Palm Beach, criticizes Biden for going to Ukraine but not Ohio (you might recall that Trump was impeached for trying to extort the Ukrainian government) pic.twitter.com/j2NLOGl51M Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2023\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":406,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1627825638311661568/pu/img/ga0Mkoc7Z3sQXlje.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":720,"title":"Aaron Rupar on 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Trump, speaking at a Hilton in Palm Beach, criticizes Biden for going to Ukraine but not Ohio (you might recall that Trump was impeached for trying to extort the Ukrainian government) pic.twitter.com/j2NLOGl51M
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2023

The former presidents swooping in to politicize the disaster is unsurprising, especially now that hes launched his bid for a second term as president. Nevertheless, Trumps legacy of gutting regulations, including rail safety rules, and botching and politicizing federal disaster responses while in the White House makes any advice he might provide on the Ohio disaster ironic.

The Trump administration rolled back and killed some regulations we had been working on; in many cases, they just stopped working on regulations altogether, said Sarah Feinberg, head of the Federal Railroad Administration in the final years of Barack Obamas administration. The impression that the safety apparatus got was that what industry wanted, industry got.

In 2018, at the urging of railroad giants and industry lobbyists, the Trump administration repealed an Obama administration rule that required electronically controlled pneumatic brakes an advanced braking technology on trains hauling a certain amount of crude oil and certain other hazardous materials. (The Obama-era brake rule, which came in the wake of several fiery train accidents, would not have applied to the train that derailed in East Palestine, but rail experts told the investigative news outlet The Lever that the Ohio accident would have been less severe if the train had the upgraded brakes.)

The industry also successfully lobbied the Trump administration to block an Obama-era effort to require at least two crew members on most trains.

In comments submitted to the Obama administrations Transportation Department in 2017, Norfolk Southern Corp., the company whose train derailed Feb. 3, highlighted rules that it argued should be repealed, replaced, suspended, or modified and wrote that the future of railroads and railroad safety is rooted in technological innovation if the regulatory regime does not stifle but encourages it.

Buttigiegs proposals include increasing the amount the Department of Transportation can fine railroads for violations, requiring at least two crew members on every train as a safety measure the industrys has fought crew size mandates and reinstating a 2025 deadline for railroads to adopt safer tank cars. Most of the changes will require congressional action, and many have been bitterly opposed by the rail industry.

As for growing calls for it to reinstate the Obama-era brake rule that Trump repealed, Bidens Transportation Department has said legislation passed in 2015 handcuffs the agency from doing so.

Republicans in the House and Senate required a cost-benefit analysis that allowed the Trump administration to repeal the rule in 2017, which now makes it very challenging to reinstate the rule, a Transportation Department spokesperson recently told HuffPost. That cost-benefit analysis ultimately concluded that the costs of the electronic brake rule outweighed the benefits a finding that essentially forced Trumps DOT to rescind the rule.