East Palestine, Ohio Oil Spill

He wore white pants, a light sport coat and, when I was a waiter at Lake Mohawk Country Club, I accidentally dropped a full Bloody Mary on him. He was kind and I think even tipped me. That along with dropping a full arm of chargers, the heavy bottom plate in Italian restaurants, at Le Carnivale, it was clear I was not meant for the restaurant industry.

A ruined suit and broken plates are not too serious, but what happens when someone is not up for a job with larger consequences.  We’re seeing that play out in East Palestine Ohio.

The cloud from the burning of vinyl chloride from a Norfolk Southern train derailment has pushed into Upstate New York.  It is unclear what the effects will be for New York, but clearly they will be greater near the site of the accident where residents have been told to evacuate.  There is plenty of blame to attach to this.

The White House response has been slow to non-existent with plenty of finger-pointing and not a lot of action to mitigate the damage.  The Ohio Governor’s call for federal aid was rebuked despite assurances the federal government would fully support Ohio.  

It was almost two weeks before anyone from the Biden administration even showed up on site and it was the Environmental Protection Agency.  Pete Buttigieg is the transportation secretary in charge of the nation’s railroads and yet, he’s been absent other than to tell residents to calm down and that train derailments are not uncommon.

It is being argued that the former administration is in part to blame for the derailment.  A provision under the FAST, Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, act in 2015 called for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review adding Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes to trains carrying hazardous materials.  This would put air brakes on each car stopping trains quicker. 

The GAO released its findings and the Department of Transportation found adding these brakes was not worth the cost and issued a rule removing the brake rule from the FAST Act. It has been portrayed as if the administration actively tried to repeal the rule.  That type of faulty analysis does not help prevent the next derailment or help us address the current environmental disaster.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is now investigating and it looks like a wheel bearing may have caused this, not a failure of brakes.  The NTSB says the ECP brake rule would not have prevented this crash because the train involved would not have been covered by the rule, but that does not mean the ECP brake rule should not be revisited and revised to cover more trains.  

Buttigieg says there are over 1,500 derailments a year.  How is that acceptable? I hope the ECP rule will return and may be more stringent than the original rule.

The criticism of the federal government’s response to the derailment is a rare instance of bipartisanship just as the criticism of the Southwest Airline meltdown was, much of it focused on Secretary Buttigieg.  There is still no complete picture of the damage or a comprehensive plan for the communities most affected by this.  

The companies at the heart of these transportation nightmares share much of the blame. Norfolk Southern’s derailment record is much worse than other large train operators while having record profits.  So far officials say they have secured the company’s commitment to cover clean up costs. Really? That would seem to be a given.  What was the balance between shareholder value and safety?  It is a similar question for Southwest whose lack of funding in upgraded systems caused thousands of delays and stranded travelers.  Obviously, the airline cancellations are better than the Ohio train accident, but it is still a major breakdown in the transportation system.

Both the Norfolk Southern and Southwest incidents call into question Secretary Buttigieg’s competency for this job. This critique is not mean spirited. He’s served his country in the military, is a good speaker, and is clearly good at politics.  But why was it expected that those skills would guide him in his management of the largest transportation system in the world?  It is time to ask, is he good at this?  If we don’t, it will be another Bloody Mary spilled on a white suit.