BUTTIGIEG TO VISIT OHIO DISASTER SITE AMID NTSB PROBE
Agency is expected to issue preliminary report on derailment
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit the site of a Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine today, the second Cabinet official to make a visit to the Ohio village since the incident two weeks ago.
Buttigieg will meet with members of the community, get an update on the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation and speak to investigators from his department who have been helping to determine the cause of the derailment.
As the federal government has come under criticism for its response to the
derailment, Buttigieg has increasingly been in the spotlight, with some residents and local officials saying he personally had done too little to help. The Transportation Department has
stepped up its response to the derailment in recent days, with Buttigieg writing to the chief executive of Norfolk Southern on Sunday and issuing a set of safety proposals Tuesday.
The NTSB, an independent agency, is leading the investigation, but it is being helped by teams from the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — both of which fall under Buttigieg’s leadership. The leaders of those agencies will join Buttigieg today.
The NTSB is expected to issue a preliminary report on the Feb. 3 derailment today, which could include new clues about what went wrong but will not formally reach a conclusion about the cause. The 149-car train derailed late in the evening, creating what officials have said was a risk of an explosion that was managed by a “controlled burn” of dangerous vinyl chloride. The NTSB has said there are signs that a wheel bearing on the train overheated before the derailment.
Buttigieg’s visit will follow two by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. The EPA is overseeing cleanup of the derailment site, and it took steps Tuesday to strengthen its management of Norfolk Southern’s efforts. The railroad will now be required to follow a plan approved by the EPA, rather than proceeding voluntarily.
Buttigieg’s star power in the Democratic Party has allowed him to turn the Cabinet position into an unusually high-profile post. But it had has also drawn Republican attacks as travel disruptions have mounted in recent weeks, including the failure of a government aviation safety bulletin system.
As he has come under criticism, Buttigieg’s office has highlighted rail safety rollbacks carried out during the Trump administration, often with the support of Republicans in Congress. Briefing reporters on safety proposals Monday, Buttigieg said he hoped the derailment would create opportunities for bipartisan action.
During that briefing, Buttigieg said that he would visit East Palestine at some point but that he had followed past practice in not immediately traveling to the scene of a major transportation incident. The Transportation Department said in statement that Buttigieg was making the trip now because the EPA had declared that it was shifting from emergency response to longterm remediation.