YEARS BEFORE EAST PALESTINE DISASTER, CONGRESSIONAL ALLIES OF THE RAIL INDUSTRY INTERVENED TO BLOCK SAFETY REGULATIONS – By Lee Fang (The Intercept) / Feb 21, 2023
Records show an all-out push to delay and repeal train safety regulations.
IN A SPIRITED exchange nearly eight years ago, Sen. John Thune scoffed at his committee colleagues when they raised concerns that legislation he sponsored would add years of delay for train safety regulations.
At issue was a bill proposed by the South Dakota Republican designed to push back the deadline for the implementation of electronically controlled pneumatic, or ECP, brakes on rail cars carrying oil or other hazardous liquids. The legislation required years of study and new rulemaking.
Thune argued that the technology was untested and that he simply wanted more data before moving ahead with the mandate for electronically controlled brakes, which had been issued in early 2015, during the Obama administration. At the time, the rail industry was booming as it transported fracked oil from North Dakota oil fields.
During the ensuing debate in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pointed to the increasing frequency of trains carrying highly flammable oil. “For a state that sees three trains now, and will see as many as fifteen on a weekly basis, this is a lot of activity that goes through every major city in our state,” said Cantwell, who called the safety regulations “critical.”
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