by Ohio Sen. JD Vance accused the federal government and the media Thursday of being slow to respond to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine because the people who live there “have the wrong politics.”
Vance made the remark on Capitol Hill as Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw hunkers down with lawmakers over his company’s handling of the Feb. 3 disaster near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
It took 20 days for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to show up at the dangerous derailment site, prompting a House Oversight Committee investigation into his “apathy.” A CNN reporter has also categorized East Palestine on air as “hardline Trump country” after the former president won more than 70 percent of the vote in Columbiana County in the 2020 election.
“I think our leadership, our media and our politicians have been slow to respond to this crisis, in part because a certain section of our leadership feels that the people of East Palestine are a bit out of fashion. They have the wrong politics.” Vance said. “They’re a little too rural, maybe a little too White.”
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Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, held a media availability in East Palestine Thursday to answer questions about the train derailment. (WYFX)
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admits during a press conference that he waited too long to make a public statement about the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday, February 23, 2023. (WKBN)
Vance added that the people of East Palestine and the Ohio EPA have “done a great job on this tragedy,” but called on the federal EPA to work harder to clean up the chemicals there.
“Right now, as we speak, there are piles of dirt piling up in East Palestine, piles of dirt filled with toxic chemicals that haven’t been removed from the state in a week. What if it rains?” Vance asked. “What if the very toxic dirt we just dug out of the ground starts seeping back into the ground, causing air and water problems for the people of East Palestine?
“We need leadership,” he said. “We need the EPA to get on the ground and aggressively move this stuff out of East Palestine, into properly licensed facilities.”
In late February, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report saying the derailed Norfolk Southern train had wheel bearings at a “temperature of 253°F above ambient” in the moments before it derailed.
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This screenshot released by the US National Transportation Safety Board shows the location of a derailed freight train in East Palestine, Ohio. ((NTSB/Handout via Xinhua via Getty Images).)
Vance, who co-authored the Railroad Safety Act of 2023 with Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is now pushing for rail safety improvements.
The office of U.S. Senate Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the bill’s sponsors, says the legislation “would increase how often the temperature of wheel bearings must be checked, implement safety procedures for trains that carry hazardous material. that trains carrying hazardous materials have two trained crew members and provide funding for hazmat training for first responders.”
But Vance said Thursday that he was concerned that “there has been a movement in my party … in response to legislation that I have proposed that would not hold Norfolk Southern or the rail industry accountable.”
“I’ve talked to a number of my Republican colleagues, and almost all of them have had a conversation in complete good faith, whether they like the bill or have some concerns about it. And these comments aren’t directed at them. Who they’re directed at is a certain segment of people that seem to believe that any improvement in public safety for the rail industry is somehow a violation of the free market,” Vance said.
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Former President Donald Trump, with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, greets supporters while touring Little Beaver Creek and water pumps during a visit to East Palestine, Ohio, following the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train Wednesday, February 22, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images.)
“Well, if you look at this industry and what’s happened over the last 30 years, that argument is a farce. This is an industry that enjoys special subsidies that almost no industry enjoys. Almost no industry enjoys. This is an industry that just three months ago the federal government stepped in and saved them from a labor dispute, it was basically a bailout,” Vance continued.
“And now they’re arguing before the Senate and the House that our reasonable regulation, our reasonable regulation is somehow a violation of the free market?” he said. “Well, pot meet the kettle, because this makes no sense.”
