Awfully strange, how railroads that have lasted since the 1800s are suddenly the source of multiple derailments in under a month’s time.
Especially as such derailments just happen to involve toxic chemicals and unilaterally occur in areas known for being deeply conservative.
That’s right: Not even a month after the derailment crisis in East Palestine, Ohio, yet another has emerged: this time in Florida.
Really, really strange, especially as representatives from Florida have been among the most vocal in calling out the feckless Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who is vastly more concerned with his “personal time” from the job rather than doing his job.
As reported by the Daily Mail, “a train carrying more than 30,000 gallons of propane fuel has derailed in Florida, sparking new environmental concerns just weeks after a toxic train overturned in Ohio … Five of the cars were carrying sheetrock, while the sixth was carrying propane. Another train car that did not overturn was also transporting propane at the time, and jumped the track during the partial derailment.”
Very strange indeed. Astonishing, really, how these derailments just happened to occur.
Especially as they just happen to occur deep inside undisputed conservative territory.
Frighteningly, recent statistics from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) have claimed that 99.9 percent of all trains carrying HAZMAT materials arrive to their destination safely.
So, in other words, the 0.1 percent of trains that do not arrive safely just happened to occur in two conservative states in under a month. Truly bizarre coincidence.
Especially when both Florida senators have resoundingly harpooned Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for being utterly, if not intentionally, indifferent to the crises.
With the latest derailment, it certainly appears that Buttigieg is even more inept (or deliberately dangerous) than initially assumed mere weeks ago.
Especially as the most definitive thing he’s done with railroads to date has been to play along with Biden by blocking railroad workers from having sufficient sick leave, a move that even radical Bernie Sanders criticized.
At least the two senators from Ohio, one Republican and one Democrat, have apparently decided to set aside their differences (for now) and take the indifference from varied federal agencies head on, as first reported by Fox News.
“Ohio’s Republican and Democratic senators have teamed up to urge the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to immediately begin health screenings of residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a dangerous train derailment released toxic chemicals into the air …
[Senators J.D. Vance and Sherrod Brown] said they sought the medical advice of a few experts, professor Kyle Walsh of Duke University’s School of Medicine and Professor Glenn Talaska of the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine, who recommended that the government begin ‘voluntary collection of health indicators’ from East Palestine residents in order to ‘establish a medical baseline from which to track any future negative health outcomes resulting from their exposure,’” the outlet detailed.
Frankly, it is rather difficult to believe the EPA’s ludicrous claims, namely that the drinking water in East Palestine is “safe.”
Particularly when the federal agencies clearly cannot be bothered with East Palestine residents beyond the mandatory minimum, which the letter effectively alluded to.
“While we understand that EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other local, state, and federal authorities have been more focused—by design—on emergency removal action and associated risks related to acute exposure in the immediate aftermath of the derailment, we want to ensure that efforts moving forward also anticipate and address our constituents’ concerns over potential long-term impacts from the disaster,” the senators wrote.
They also noted that East Palestine residents “deserve to know if their health has been compromised by this disaster now and for years to come.”
Unfortunately, as East Palestine residents happen to be largely conservative, it is extremely unlikely that the Biden administration is overtly inclined to implement federal programs to assess whether or not their health has “declined.”
However, if East Palestine were to become a sanctuary city for illegal migrants, the current “leadership” might consider expressing more vocal concern … and tangible action.
In the meantime, stay tuned for developments emerging from Florida, yet another conservative state curiously afflicted by a derailment crisis less than month after Ohio.
Or, given the currently unfavorable trends, stay tuned for the next (statistically implausible) derailment …
Author: Ofelia Thornton