{"id":7066,"date":"2023-03-01T16:37:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T21:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=7066"},"modified":"2023-03-06T23:34:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T04:34:41","slug":"east-palestine-part-2-politics-and-the-road-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2023\/03\/01\/east-palestine-part-2-politics-and-the-road-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"East Palestine Part 2: Politics and the Road Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 1: The Causes<\/a><\/p>\n

The Politics: Continued Warfare or a New Age of Bipartisanship?<\/h2>\n

The politics of the East Palestine rail disaster are fascinating.<\/p>\n

If you follow the right-wing MAGA-verse on Twitter and Fox News (and I don’t recommend it!), you’d “learn” that that East Palestine was caused by a gay Transportation Secretary who cares more about “wokeness” than the white citizens of East Palestine, and a senile President who cares more about unworthy Ukrainians that Trump-loving East Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The main focus of the MAGA-verse has been on attacking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (rather than Norfolk Southern) and attacking Biden’s incompetence, rather than Precision Scheduled Railroading. And pushing the myth that the administration ignored the disaster because the town was made up of a bunch of white Trump-voters and therefore not worth the attention of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

The main focus of the MAGA-verse has been on attacking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (rather than Norfolk Southern) and attacking Biden’s incompetence, rather than Precision Scheduled Railroading.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you listen to Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boeber<\/a>t, Tucker Carlson<\/a>, JD Vance<\/a> and Don Jr<\/a>. you’d \u00a0believe that Republicans were always concerned about environmental disasters and if East Palestine was populated by African Americans or Latinos, the Biden administration would have been all over it. But no, it’s the forgotten white Trump voters who suffer from the Biden administration’s environmental failures.<\/p>\n

The fact, of course, is that African Americans and Latinos are more likely to live near chemical facilities<\/a> than their white people.<\/p>\n

Numerous studies have found that low-income communities, including white ones,\u00a0suffer disproportionately from air pollution<\/a>. But within that demographic, poor Black communities have by far the greatest risk of premature death from particle pollution.<\/p>\n

The argument that poor white communities are \u201cforgotten\u201d compared with the lavish attention bestowed by the media and politicians on Black inner-city areas is also a distortion. Last August the 79% Black city of Jackson, Mississippi, grappled with a\u00a0drinking water crisis<\/a>\u00a0that had been brewing for years yet largely ignored by the media as a whole. Media Matters found that\u00a0one TV channel stood out<\/a>\u00a0for the relatively paltry six minutes it devoted to the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe \u2013 Fox News.<\/p>\n

African Americans are 75 percent<\/a>\u00a0more likely to live near industrial chemical facilities than the average citizen, according to a national report by the\u00a0Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform<\/a>. The percentage of Latinos living in proximity to dangerous chemical plants is also shockingly high, at\u00a060 percent<\/a>\u00a0more than the national average.<\/p>\n

African Americans are 75 percent more likely to live near industrial chemical facilities than the average citizen. The percentage of Latinos living in proximity to dangerous chemical plants is also shockingly high, at\u00a060 percent\u00a0more than the national average.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have we seen MAGA outrage about these facts? Or even recognition?<\/p>\n

And where are the Republicans after disasters like the huge explosion<\/a> at a petrochemical plant in Port Neches, Texas in November 2019 which led to an evacuation of a half-mile radius and the force of the explosion blew out windows on residences, with others downwind of the place told to shelter in place?<\/p>\n

I don’t recall them berating the Bush administration for not paying attention after the 2005 BP Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers? Or did they even notice the 2013 West Texas fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people and destroyed much of the the town of West, Texas?<\/p>\n

There’s also no truth<\/a> that the Biden administration ignored the problem until Donald Trump swooped in with gallons of Trump water.<\/p>\n

While DOT — and specifically the FRA —\u00a0 is charged with regulating and enforcing rail safety, and specifically with preventing incidents like this, the immediate response to chemical disasters lies not with DOT, but with the EPA. And EPA was there<\/a> within hours of the derailment:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The E.P.A. has had a presence on the ground in East Palestine since 2 a.m. on Feb. 4, hours after the crash, to help state and local authorities with response efforts, according to an agency spokeswoman. By the end of that day, the E.P.A. had 17 coordinators and contractors performing air quality monitoring and testing, had brought in a mobile analytical laboratory to test samples and had deployed a special aircraft to assess emissions releases.<\/p>\n

I will give them one thing. Buttigieg could have been much more visible and until last week, DOT had given no sign that it was attempting to restore the rail safety regulations that Trump rescinded or to strengthen the rules that Obama watered down.<\/p>\n

Also, despite the fact that Buttigieg and his agency do not have a primary role in the cleanup or investigation, this incident could\u00a0 have been a prime opportunity for someone like Buttigieg to immediately take the leadership on calling for stronger rail safety regulations and focusing on who’s really to blame: Norfolk Southern, Republican regulatory cutbacks and Precision Scheduled Railroading which is resulting in burned out workers, longer and heavier trains and inadequate maintenance.<\/p>\n

As it was, it took weeks for him to step up, and it wasn’t exactly good optics to arrive in East Palestine the day after Donald Trump.\u00a0 And he brought no water.<\/p>\n

Painted into a Corner?<\/h3>\n

I’ve been looking forward to seeing how the MAGA outrage of this incident plays out. And it is, indeed interesting.<\/p>\n

First, one good thing about it is that it has prolonged the attention of the media and politicians on infrastructure, transportation and environmental problems, and the need for strong regulations to prevent these things from happening. Usually, this type of incident, especially when there are no immediate fatalities, gets forgotten after a few days — as does the push for stronger regulatory protections.\"East<\/p>\n

But the more significant effect of the Republican attacks on Buttigieg and the Biden administration is the implicit recognition that the federal government — and stronger regulations – have an important role in preventing these incidents. The logical conclusion then is to call for the DOT to play a stronger role in ensuring rail safety.<\/p>\n

But the more significant effect of the Republican attacks on Buttigieg and the Biden administration is the implicit recognition that the federal government — and stronger regulations – have an important role in preventing these incidents. The logical conclusion then is to call for the DOT to play a stronger role in ensuring rail safety.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Can we expect them to call for stronger regulations and increased funding for EPA, DOT and OSHA?\u00a0 Will they call on the rail industry to invest more in safety and less in stakeholder profits?<\/p>\n

I admit that I’ve been skeptical. On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago, the newly elected Republican Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance — one of the few MAGA Senate candidates elected in the recent mid-terms — along with Senator Marco Rubio, sent a letter<\/a> to Buttigieg asking what DOT is doing to “preempt or protect against some of the \u201creduced performance and resilience\u201d that have reportedly resulted” from Precision Scheduled Railroading, and added that “it is not unreasonable to ask whether a crew of two rail workers, plus one trainee, is able to effectively monitor 150 cars.”<\/p>\n

Good question<\/p>\n

Bipartisan Legislation: A Pandora’s Box?<\/h3>\n

And imagine my surprise when I read in this press release<\/a> this morning that Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and JD Vance (R-OH), along with U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) will introduce the bipartisan\u00a0Railway Safety Act of 2023<\/i><\/b><\/a> to prevent future train disasters.<\/p>\n

The Railway Safety Act of 2023 would:<\/p>\n