BUTTIGIEG CALLS FOR RAIL SAFETY CHANGES
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wants the nation’s freight railroads to immediately act to improve safety while regulators try to strengthen safety rules in the wake of a fiery derailment in Ohio that forced evacuations when toxic chemicals were released and burned.
Buttigieg announced a package of reforms Tuesday — two days after he warned the railroad responsible for the derailment, Norfolk Southern, to fulfill its promises to clean up the mess just outside East Palestine, Ohio, and help the town recover. He said the Department of Transportation will hold the railroad accountable for any safety violations that contributed to the Feb. 3 crash near the Pennsylvania border.
“While ensuring the safety of those impacted by this crash is the immediate priority, we also have to recognize that this represents an important moment to redouble our efforts to make this far less likely to happen again in the future,” Buttigieg said.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, returned to the town of 4,700 Tuesday along with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania and Norfolk Southern’s CEO. The EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to pay for the cleanup of the wreck and chemical release as federal regulators took charge of long-term recovery efforts and promised worried residents they wouldn’t be forgotten.
EPA used its authority under the federal Superfund law to order Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water, and also said the company would be required to reimburse the federal government for a new program to provide cleaning services for affected residents and businesses.
Even though government data shows that derailments have declined in recent years, there were still 1,049 of them last year. Most are ordinary and don’t cause any major problems, like the derailment in Nebraska on Tuesday morning that toppled more than two dozen Union Pacific railcars, spilled coal and blocked the tracks.
Buttigieg said regulators will try to revive a proposed rule the Trump administration dropped that would have required upgraded, electronically controlled brakes on certain trains filled with flammable liquids that are designated “high-hazardous flammable trains.” The rule was dropped after Congress directed regulators to use a strict cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the rule.
Buttigieg said he’ll ask Congress to “untie our hands here” on the braking rule, and regulators may look at expanding which trains are covered by the “high-hazardous” rules that were announced in 2015 after several fiery crude oil train derailments. He also said Congress should raise the current $225,455 limit on railroad safety fines at least tenfold to create a better deterrent.