A story in two tweets:
Report: J.D. Vance Watered Down His Rail Safety Bill
“In his brief tenure, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has touted a signature piece of legislation to show his New Right bonafides: The Railway Safety Act of 2023. A bipartisan bill, co-authored with fellow Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, the legislation would implement new regulations in order to prevent another catastrophic train derailment like the one that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio in February. It’s something Joe Biden and Donald Trump can agree on. And, importantly, it’s theoretically Vance sticking to his word in looking to work on issues that affect the working-class Americans he feels have been left behind.
But there’s a hitch. A new report in Lever News today by Julia Rock says Vance watered down the bill at the behest of the chemical industry, who Vance receives donations from.
Banks:
SVB CEO Greg Becker lobbied the government to relax some Dodd-Frank provisions on regional lenders in 2015. Trump did in 2018.
Trump-Era Deregulation Deemed a Key Culprit in the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank
“”President Trump and congressional Republicans’ decision to roll back Dodd-Frank’s ‘too big to fail’ rules for banks like SVB—reducing both oversight and capital requirements—contributed to a costly collapse,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.”
Primary Source:
Failed Bank List
Trains:
Another Donald Trump Lie:
This Trump Tweet not aging well:
The question Trump is lying about:
Ugly people saying ugly things:
But,
Ohio’s DeWine says he has not taken up Biden on offer of ‘anything you need’ in wake of train derailment disaster
FACTS
CNN’s Bill Weir describes how the Trump administration gutted train regulations before the East Palestine disaster
““When President Obama tried to make [new brakes] mandatory after a bunch of derailments in 2014 … the industry, the railroads, the chemical companies, the lobbies fought it hard. They gutted it.”“
Trump cut literal red tape while standing next to a massive pile of paper to make a point about big government
“”So this is what we have now, and this is where we were in 1960, and when we’re finished, which won’t be in too long a period of time, we will be less than where we were in 1960, and we will have a great regulatory climate,” Trump said, with his daughter Ivanka and others behind him.”
The East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck didn’t have to be this bad
“The train derailment and chemical spill was the culmination of a long trend of cost-cutting in the rail industry.”
Trump Rolls Back Train-Braking Rule Meant to Keep Oil Tankers from Exploding Near Communities
“Trains that carry oil and other flammable material won’t have to install electronically controlled brakes that reduce the risk of train derailments and explosions after the reversal by Trump officials of an Obama-era safety rule.”
A look at some of the transportation safety rules sidelined under President Trump
“Trains
► A final rule requiring all trains have at least two crew members was sent to the White House for approval in December 2016. The rule was sent back to the Federal Railroad Administration six days after Trump’s inauguration. It has since been moved from the White House list of active rulemakings to the long-term agenda.
The proposal was prompted in part by a 2013 derailment in which a runaway oil train improperly secured by a lone engineer careened into in a Canadian town, igniting a fierce fire that killed 47 people. Most trains already have two crew members. Freight railroads, which want to keep open the option of single-person crews as trains become more automated, oppose the rule.
► DOT has repealed a 2015 rule requiring train cars that haul highly flammable crude oil be equipped with advanced braking systems that stop tank cars simultaneously. Most trains use conventional air brakes that stop cars one after the other.
Freight railroads say the rule’s safety benefits are marginal and don’t justify the cost. DOT says its revised analysis of the rule shows costs would outstrip benefits. Union officials say the advanced brakes are far superior to conventional brakes.
► Responding to a congressional directive, the railroad administration issued a rule in 2016 requiring commuter and intercity passenger railroads to identify their safety risks and create a plan to manage those risks.
The Trump administration has delayed the rule’s requirements five times, most recently through Dec. 4, in response to petitions from some states. The states have complained that they shouldn’t be required to develop safety programs for railroads they sponsor, but don’t operate themselves. DOT says the delay will save railroads money and give the agency time to work out concerns raised about the rule.”
The issue is not the number of derailments but the impact of them due to deregulation.
Rail got a grade of B in latest Infrastructure Report Card
Overview of Rail
Deregulation to please donors is the problem,
Follow The Money!
Rail Companies Blocked Safety Rules Before Ohio Derailment
“The sequence of events began a decade ago in the wake of a major uptick in derailments of trains carrying crude oil and hazardous chemicals, including a New Jersey train crash that leaked the same toxic chemical as in Ohio.
In response, the Obama administration in 2014 proposed improving safety regulations for trains carrying petroleum and other hazardous materials. However, after industry pressure, the final measure ended up narrowly focused on the transport of crude oil and exempting trains carrying many other combustible materials, including the chemical involved in this weekend’s disaster.
Then came 2017: After rail industry donors delivered more than $6 million to GOP campaigns, the Trump administration — backed by rail lobbyists and Senate Republicans — rescinded part of that rule aimed at making better braking systems widespread on the nation’s rails.
Specifically, regulators killed provisions requiring rail cars carrying hazardous flammable materials to be equipped with electronic braking systems to stop trains more quickly than conventional air brakes. Norfolk Southern had previously touted the new technology — known as Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes — for its “potential to reduce train stopping distances by as much as 60 percent over conventional air brake systems.”
AP Exclusive: Transport safety rules rolled back under Trump
“An Associated Press review of the department’s rulemaking activities in Trump’s first year in office shows at least a dozen safety rules that were under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed or put on the back burner. In most cases, those rules are opposed by powerful industries. And the political appointees running the agencies that write the rules often come from the industries they regulate.
Meanwhile, there have been no significant new safety rules adopted over the same period.
The sidelined rules would have, among other things, required states to conduct annual inspections of commercial bus operators, railroads to operate trains with at least two crew members and automakers to equip future cars and light trucks with vehicle-to-vehicle communications to prevent collisions. Many of the rules were prompted by tragic events.
“These rules have been written in blood,” said John Risch, national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. “But we’re in a new era now of little-to-no new regulations no matter how beneficial they might be. The focus is what can we repeal and rescind.””
Is Donald Trump to Blame for Ohio Train Derailment?
“Speaking to investigative news outlet The Lever, Steven Ditmeyer, a former top official at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), said the “severity” of the accident was likely increased by the lack of Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes.
A rule was passed under President Barack Obama that made it a requirement for trains carrying hazardous flammable materials to have ECP brakes, but this was rescinded in 2017 by the Trump administration.
The industry said it would cost more than $3 billion to implement. The FRA under Obama said it would be around half a billion.”
Trump administration underestimated benefit of better brakes on trains with explosive hauls
Crew got mechanical failure warning before wreck
“• A mechanical issue was detected: The crew was alerted by an alarm shortly before the derailment “indicating a mechanical issue,” a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member said. An emergency brake was applied, but about 10 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed.”
“There was a mechanical failure warning before the crash, NTSB Member Michael Graham said Sunday. About 10 of 20 cars carrying hazardous materials – among more than 100 cars in all – derailed, the agency said.
“The crew did receive an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment, indicating a mechanical issue,” Graham said. “Then an emergency brake application initiated.”
Investigators also identified the point of derailment and found video showing “preliminary indications of mechanical issues” on one of the railcar axles, Graham said.”
Being silly:
