Dry Transport generally even-tempered. Pete Buttigieg unleashed profanity to hit back at a claim that he only visited eastern Palestine, Ohio, because former President Trump did.
“It’s *** bulls,” he said in a CNN interview. “We were already ready to leave.”
The 41-year-old former mayor and presidential candidate has been made the public scapegoat for the derailment, amid anger from Republicans who say he and the rest of the Biden administration were behind the ball to respond to the crisis.
Buttigieg traveled to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border town Feb. 23-20 after the Norfolk Southern train derailed and toxic chemicals spilled into the community. Fifty cars – 10 carrying hazardous materials – ran off the track and chemicals seeped into the air and local waterways before authorities carried out a controlled burn.
Trump had visited a day earlier, where he accused the Biden administration of “indifference and betrayal” towards the community.
Buttigieg admitted to CNN he should have come sooner. But he said his conservative critics were feigning outrage for the town of 4,700 people where the median household income is $46,000.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks with residents of East Palestine, Ohio, but did not take questions from reporters on Thursday, February 23.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally traveled to eastern Palestine on Thursday, 20 days after the train derailment left the Ohio community reeling and begging for answers from the Biden administration .
‘It’s really rich to see some of these people – the former president, these Fox hosts – who are literally lifelong members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been the tax cuts for the rich, and who would “don’t know how to handle themselves in a TJ Maxx if their life depended on it, to present themselves as if they really cared about the forgotten center of the country”, said the Transportation Secretary.
“You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a TJ Maxx and a Kohl’s?”
But Buttigieg said it would have made little difference for him to visit the site sooner, as the immediate response to the crash falls to other agencies. But he nodded, it might have reassured the community that their voices were heard to see one of the best-known faces of the Biden administration there.
Buttigieg called Trump’s visit “somewhat infuriating – to see someone who has tried so hard to gut not only rail safety regulations, but also the EPA, which is the first thing that stands between this community and a total loss of responsibility for Norfolk Southern, then show up to donate bottled water and campaign spoils?
The transportation secretary has accused Republicans of rolling back rail regulations.
“People who have sided with the rail industry over and over and over are suddenly acting as rail safety advocates,” Buttigieg said. “But it also creates the possibility of calling them to the table and saying, ‘OK, if we’re serious now, let’s do this.
Federal investigators say the cause of the derailment was a mechanical problem with the car’s axle.
In 2015, the DOT proposed a rule that would require a high-tech braking system—electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes—on trains carrying more than 20 high-risk flammable (HHFT) railcars.
But Congress mandated a cost-benefit analysis before the rule could be imposed, and the Trump administration repealed it in 2017. Buttigieg’s DOT took no action to bring the rule back.
Nearly three weeks after the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying hazardous waste in East Palestine, Ohio, cleanup efforts continue.
A man takes photos as a black plume rises over eastern Palestine, Ohio following the controlled detonation of part of the derailed Norfolk Southern train, February 6, 2023 .
The secretary has since said he wants to reinstate the ECP brake rule and speed up the phasing in of the requirement for tougher tank cars for transporting toxic chemicals. New tank cars are currently not required until 2029.
Buttigieg said he also wants to increase the maximum amount DOT can charge railroads for safety violations.
Last week, Ohio Sens. JD Vance, R, and Sherrod Brown, D, introduced a rail safety bill that would require at least two crews, include stricter risk mitigation rules for trains carrying hazardous materials and require railways to inform local emergency response teams. when crossing with hazardous materials.
