Biden reversed Trump actions — just not on trains
The fiery derailment of freight cars carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this month was devastating and terrifying. Communities near the crash site were ordered to evacuate as a toxic cloud from burning chemicals wafted through the air. Water was contaminated by the release of toxic chemicals, which also leeched into the ground.
It’s the stuff of nightmares. And it’s Trump’s fault.
At least that’s the not-sothinly-veiled implication by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in his visit to East Palestine Thursday. As The Hill reported, Buttigieg made the trip a day after former President Trump visited the town. President Biden has yet to go.
The Biden Administration has justifiably taken heat for its better-late-than-never approach to the chaos on the ground. Trent Conaway, the mayor of East Palestine called President Biden’s visit to Ukraine the “biggest slap in the face” as his town continues to weather the chemical fallout from the derailment.
That’s bad optics for Biden and Co., and Buttigieg did his best to deflect from the White House’s inattention, calling on Trump to support the Biden administration in reversing Trump-era deregulations.
“One thing he can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he can come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction,” Buttigieg said.
The White House has blamed Republican lawmakers and Trump for lax railway and environmental regulations since the derailment, and pointed to a 2021 letter from Republican senators to the Federal Railroad Administration, urging the agency to expand the use of automated track inspection, as well as a Republican Study Committee proposal to cut to government funding to address chemical spills.
Yet Biden had no problem reversing Trump’s permit for the Keystone Pipeline on his first day in office.
He also signed an executive order rejoining the 2015 Paris climate agreement, from which Trump formally withdrew.
Biden revoked Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the building of a wall along the Mexican border and also ended a travel ban on some majority-Muslim countries.
He also reversed Trump’s diversity training ban for the federal government and its contractors, and also repealed his predecessor’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.
In short, Biden has shown no hesitation in overturning Trump’s policies, so why didn’t the administration reverse regulations regarding track inspections and the response to chemical spills?
The president took the red pencil to many of Trump’s orders during his first month in office, surely he could have found time to tackle railway and environmental issues within the last two years.
A lot of things went wrong in East Palestine, Ohio. But passing the buck isn’t going to help.