Americans are decrying the Biden administration's failure to address the growing environmental crisis which has caused Ohio residents to flee their homes.
After a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and crashed, highly volatile vinyl chloride gas was intentionally set aflame, spreading toxic smoke and fumes across a wide area. The decision to release and burn the toxins was based on modeling from the US Department of Defense.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued a joint statement:
According to Norfolk Southern Railroad, the controlled release process involves the burning of the rail cars' chemicals, which will release fumes into the air that can be deadly if inhaled.
DeWine and Shapiro warned of “severe injury, including skin burns and serious lung damage” as well as “grave danger of death” for people exposed to smoke and fumes and ordered evacuations for thousands of people.
The Biden administration is widely hailed by environmental groups for canceling the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The administration was also quick to condemn gas stoves on environmental grounds, and is pushing offshore wind energy development that has been linked in recent weeks to a dramatic spike in large whale deaths.
Yet, the Biden administration was slow to acknowledge the Ohio environmental crisis and its potentially serious environmental impact on the entire Ohio Valley, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Waters contaminated by the fallout from the lethal vinyl chloride gas will flow into the Gulf of Mexico, involving Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisanna as well.
As news of the train derailment began to hit mainstream media on Monday, ten days after the derailment, Secretary Buttigieg seemed to downplay the disaster and chose instead to focus on the race of people in the construction industry.
Buttigieg chose the National Association of Counties Conference to make his statement:
We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood.
Bipartisan backlash is flowing in from all sides as Americans took to Twitter to call out the administration.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called out Secretary Buttigieg for his silence:
East Palestine railroad derailment will have a significant negative impact on the health and wellbeing of the residents for decades and there is almost zero national media attention.
We need Congressional inquiry and direct action from @PeteButtigieg to address this tragedy.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz retweeted Omar with his agreement in a rare bipartisan moment.
“It took transportation secretary @PeteButtigieg 10 days to say something about the #OhioTrainDisaster that has resulted in toxic chemicals being released on the small town community of East Palestine, Ohio,” tweeted Twitter user @ProudSocialist.
“Why are we just hearing about this Ohio train disaster????!” tweeted another user, sharing a tweet saying that a woman ten miles from East Palestine found all of her chickens dead as a result of the toxic chemicals.
Rogan O’Handley, attorney and political commentator, tweeted as “DC_Draino”:
Talking points you’ll probably hear from Joe Biden:
- Ban AR15s!
- Infrastructure act is doing great!
- Inflation is slightly less than historic highs!
- Russia Russia Russia!
Things you won’t hear:
- The Fed gov’t is all hands on deck to help the Ohio people recover from this disaster.
The White House’s stated climate goals are:
- Reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels in 2030
- Reaching 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035
- Achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050
- Delivering 40% of the benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities
Many conservatives are questioning the value of these statements when little action has been taken to resolve an environmental crisis with extremely serious short-term consequences and which could have long-term effects stretching years for nearly a quarter of the United States.
