President Joe Biden’s administration denied Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s request for disaster aid because the occurrence did not meet the criteria for a national disaster declaration. FEMA considers tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes natural disasters, but a train derailment with a huge toxic chemical payload does not qualify as a national disaster. Rainbow rivers, toxic clouds, lots of dead wildlife, a god-awful smell, and contaminated drinking water do not qualify as a national disaster under the Biden administration.
Pete Buttigieg, the United States Secretary of Transportation, showed how heartless he was by acting like the occurrence was an everyday affair. Buttigieg stated on Thursday that the train crash in East Palestine, Ohio, is receiving a “great level of attention” even though accidents like this are common.
Because of the large fire and the dangerous chemical leak caused by the Norfolk Suffolk railway crash on February 3 resulted in 2,000 people being evacuated, and the remainder of the population was advised to stay inside, is a common event in Buttigieg’s delusional mind.
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Finance, Buttigieg estimated that similar incidents occur around 1,000 times a year. Although this tragic event has received a great deal of media coverage, Buttigieg argues that there is certainly more that has to be done
because train derailments occur at a rate of about 1,000 per year.
Buttigieg finally spoke out ten days after the catastrophe and assured the public on Twitter that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Rail Administration, and Pipelines and Hazardous Materials are all looking into the matter.
Buttigieg stated he continues to be concerned about the ramifications of the February 3 train crash near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days after their lives were thrown into chaos through no fault of their own. The U.S. Department of Transportation assisted the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) with its inquiry. Within hours after the original incident, our Federal Rail Administration and Pipelines and Hazardous Materials teams were on the scene and remained actively involved.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration, there have been more than a thousand derailments in the years between 2019 and 2022. A total of 1,044 derailments were reported in the United States in 2022, down from 1,242 in 2019.
And as if that weren’t enough, Buttigieg also attacked the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation for eliminating a regulation regarding electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.
Buttigieg remarked in a tweet that while they were using the authorities, they do have to keep people safe, the government is limited in some areas of rail regulation (such as the brake rule revoked by the Trump administration in 2018 due to a statute passed by Congress in 2015).
In response to the Transport Secretary’s post, many expressed their displeasure on social media.
Canary CEO Dan K. Eberhart said in a tweet that this is the condition of the Biden administration: Blame Trump for something that happened solely under their watch.
Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted, “It’s 2023, @PeteButtigieg. Stop blaming Trump.”