Backlash After Buttigieg Blames Trump for Hampering Train Safety Amid Ohio Train Derailment Fallout

United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks to journalists in Long Beach, Calif., on Jan 11, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg faced sharp criticism after he appeared to cast some of the blame for the Ohio train derailment onto former President Donald Trump because the Department of Transportation (DOT) under the former president nixed an Obama-era regulation on advanced train brake systems.

The derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 of a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals sparked a blaze, releasing toxins into the air and forcing evacuations.

Buttigieg’s office did not address the incident for days, with the Transportation secretary breaking his silence on Feb. 14, saying he was “concerned about the impacts” of the derailment, which also led to contaminants entering the Ohio River, killing several thousand fish.

Buttigieg also took aim at the Trump-era DOT for axing a rule on the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” Buttigieg said in a tweet.

The Transport Secretary’s tweet drew a flurry of reactions on social media, many critical.

“This is an absolutely insane thing to tweet,” wrote Jack Kennedy of Barstool Sports, in a tweet.

“This is the state of the Biden administration: Blame Trump for something that happened exclusively under their watch,” wrote Canary CEO Dan K. Eberhart in a tweet.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) took to Twitter to remark: “It’s 2023 @PeteButtigieg. Stop blaming Trump.”

An aerial view shows a plume of smoke, following a train derailment that forced people to evacuate from their homes in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 6, 2023. (Reuters/Alan Freed)

ECP Rule

As part of Trump’s cutting regulations that he said slowed the economy, the DOT in 2018 withdrew an Obama-era rule that was opposed by railroads requiring trains carrying certain hazardous chemicals to use ECP brakes.

At the time, the DOT argued in its final Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) that the costs of the ECP brake technology outweighed the benefits and that retrofitting locomotives with the advanced braking systems “increased the costs while not adding any additional business or safety benefits.”

Ahead of the final RIA, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) argued in comments on a draft revised version of the impact analysis that not only did the Trump-era DOT correctly determine that the costs of the ECP rule “substantially outweigh its benefits,” but that a safety analysis that was relied on by the Obama-era DOT in making the rule was flawed.

The association argued that the safety modeling was “deemed so faulty and unreliable that it does not permit any conclusive determination concerning the safety benefits of ECP brakes.”

The railroads also argued that there are problems with ECP brakes, that the technology is “unreliable and extremely difficult and time-consuming to troubleshoot,” with the equipment degrading when not used and with “significant problems” including battery drain, corrosion of connectors, and patchy communication.

Some opposed rescinding the ECP rule.

‘Greatest Safety Advancement’

John Risch, former national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, has argued that ECP brakes are the “greatest safety advancement I have seen in my 40 years in the railroad industry.”

Risch, who opposed rescinding the rule in 2018, said that the ECP brakes have a key safety benefit over conventional brakes in that they can stop a train automatically when air pressure on a train car drops below a certain level.

Buttigieg addressed the 2018 ECP brake rule repeal in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

“In the wake of the East Palestine derailment and its impact on hundreds of residents, we’re seeing lots of newfound or renewed (and welcome) interest in our work on rail safety, so I wanted to share more about what we’ve been doing in this area,” Buttigieg wrote.

The transport secretary said that the Biden administration is making “historic investments” in rail safety, listing a series of measures including $3 billion to eliminate highway-rail grade crossings, which are intersections where a roadway crosses railroad tracks at the same level or grade and that are frequent collision points.

After listing measures the DOT has taken on the safety front, Buttigieg called out the elimination of the brake system rule under Trump.

“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” Buttigieg said.

“And of course, I’m always ready to work with Congress on furthering (or in some cases, restoring) our capacity to address rail safety issues,” he added.

A DOT spokesperson told Fox News that, after the investigation into the derailment of the Ohio train is concluded, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration “will look to the investigation results and use all relevant authorities to ensure accountability and improve safety.”

The spokesperson added that the two agencies will, pending the results of the investigation, “evaluate action to prevent this from happening again.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the East Palestine derailment.

The agency said in a Feb. 14 update that a preliminary report is expected within weeks but that a full probe could take as long as 24 months.