As the ecological disaster in East Palestine, Ohio continues to frighten locals and their fellow countrymen alike, there has been no shortage of criticism of the Biden administration’s rather tepid response to the catastrophe.
Specifically Americans have been incredibly unimpressed with the work of Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose involvement with the railroad crisis has been lackluster to say the least.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is “concerned” by the impacts of the trail derailment near East Palestine, he said in a statement late Monday — days after residents were force to evacuate due to the release of toxic chemicals.
“I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own,” Buttigieg said in a social media update Monday evening.
“It’s important that families have access to useful & accurate information,” he continued before contending there was a swift response to the incident initially.
His comments were rather milquetoast as well, inciting fury among those affected.
“USDOT has been supporting the investigation led by The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Our Federal Rail Administration and Pipelines and Hazardous Materials teams were onsite within hours of the initial incident and continue to be actively engaged,” he said, making a vague promise to investigate what happened and hold those responsible accountable.
“In the meantime, our Federal partners at EPA are onsite and monitoring indoor and outdoor air quality to test for VOCs and other chemicals of concern,” he said, adding that the agency has screened 291 homes already with “no detections” identified.
The comments come more than a week after the disaster occurred, and on the heels of news regarding previously unknown, dangerous chemicals that were discovered in the aftermath.
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