 Everybody that came here, they've got to tell the world and what we're getting right now. Frustration, anger and unanswered questions in East Palestine, Ohio. Are my kids safe? Are the people safe? Is the future of this community safe? The mayor leading the meeting at times speaking through a bullhorn to answer questions from distressed residents still worried about returning to their homes despite evacuation orders being lifted last week. The railroad got us wrong. So far they've worked with us and they're fixing it. But if that stops, I will guarantee you I will be the first one in line to fight that. Officials trying to answer the community's questions. That evacuation goes into determining by department of transportation and other subject matter experts based on the previous incidents that everybody said has followed my answer. As many residents are demanding more testing of air, water and soil. We're not going to stop the testing until you're satisfied. That's going to be testing. Well, this story is extremely infuriating, so buckle up. Norfolk Southern is the train company that poisoned the entire town of East Palestine, Ohio and now they're refusing to face the people whose lives they put in jeopardy. As Columbia Dispatch reporter Max Philby explains, Norfolk Southern backed out of the East Palestine town hall meeting tonight because officials said they felt it was, quote, unsafe to attend the mayor of the town told people unsafe to attend. So what do they mean by that? Do they mean that the town is unsafe because of the chemicals that they spilled and it poses a health risk? No, they know that they're going to get reamed and they just don't want to show up and be held accountable by the residents of East Palestine who again, they poisoned. They explained their reasoning according to HuffPost, quote, we know that many are rightfully angry and frustrated right now, the company said. Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties. Initially, the town hall would have allowed the public to ask questions of officials and the railroad, but the event was subsequently changed to an open house with informational tables for residents WKB and TV reported. It is unclear if that change was made because of Norfolk Southern's decision to back out. Yeah, so they're trying to say face and claim that it's not the residents who they're particularly afraid of. It's outside parties who maybe will antagonize them or try to physically assault them. I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it. If you can't show us receipts, then you need to show up. And I think that we all know what this is about. This company just doesn't want to face accountability for the lives that they've ruined. They don't want to look the residents of East Palestine in the faces and have them confront them about what they did to this town. And listen, let's be clear, accidents happen, but this was entirely preventable. So the lever did a fantastic video explaining what caused this particular train derailment. And as you're going to see, well, it's government malfeasance and corruption, but also it's because Norfolk Southern wanted to increase profits even if that came at the expense of the lives of their workers and the people who they're supposed to be serving. Let's watch. We saw in the middle of the country a giant chemical fireball 100-foot flames and very few people asking questions about what led up to this. So there was a derailment in 2012 in New Jersey. Releasing 20,000 gallons of dangerous chemicals and noxious gas into the air. There's children in the town that are being affected by this. And there was pressure on regulators to do something about those kinds of trains. And so the Obama administration had a rule proposed to better regulate these trains. The National Transportation Safety Board told the regulatory agency said, listen, these regulations should broadly cover not just oil, they should cover what's known as class 2 chemicals. And the chemical industry lobbyists went to work pressuring the regulatory agency to limit the definition of what a high hazard flammable train is. Limit it in a way that the train in Ohio, that kind of train ended up not being classified as a high hazard flammable train. The NTSB closely monitoring four cars that are filled with vinyl chloride. It has been found to be linked to cancer. Trains that were subject to this rule were going to be required to use a special kind of new braking system to try to deter or at least reduce the damage from derailments. ECP delivers the unmatched performance of airbrakes with the precision of electronic communications. Most trains in the country are still using technology from the Civil War era. The moment the government was considering making it a mandate, the railroad industry's changed its tune. It cited cost concerns to pressure against that rule. We want to see federal regulations when they're necessary, not just in reaction to a headline in the Washington Post. Obama's rule included that measure to expand the larger use of those brakes on the nation's rail system. But in that 2016 election year, the Republican Party got about $6 million from the rail industry and Senate Republicans started beating the drum for Trump to repeal the rule. Donald Trump repealed the brake rule so that the industry does not have to even start to use these kinds of brakes. One former federal railroad administration regular told us that these brakes, which are known as ECP brakes, would have mitigated a disaster like this. And we just learned today after the publication of our story, federal officials told us that this train did not have those brakes on the train. So their recklessness and greed led to this and they won't even show up and face the people whose health they put in jeopardy. Completely unacceptable. And to add further insult to injury, as the lever explains, amid the lobbying blitz against stronger transportation safety regulations, Norfolk Southern paid executives millions and spent billions on stock buybacks all while the company shed thousands of employees despite warnings that understaffing is intensifying safety risks. Norfolk Southern officials also fought off a shareholder initiative that could have required company executives to, quote, assess, review and mitigate risks of hazardous material transportation. So the industry has been deregulated. On top of that, Congress broke a strike at the behest of railroad companies so that way they don't have to pay their workers sick leave. And that train derailment is the culmination of years of corporate greed, corruption and malfeasance overall. And guess what? It happened again. Today, another train has derailed this time in Michigan with at least six cars coming off the track and one of them carrying, once again, hazardous materials at the time that I record this, though, we don't know what materials in particular it contained. And as More Perfect Union explains, this train was also run by, you guessed it, Norfolk Southern. And they cite a USA Today article which explains the rate of train accidents has been ticking up for Norfolk Southern progressively over the past decade. Also, over the last five years, federal inspectors have flagged 36% more hazmat violations versus the five years prior. So we've got another train derailment, possibly poisoning another town in the United States, and they still won't even show up and face the people who they poisoned just a couple of weeks ago. I mean, this company should be nationalized. They should fear nationalization currently, but multiple administrations now have allowed them to regulate themselves, and we've seen exactly what that has led to this very moment. And Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is refusing to step up as the spotlight is on him, and he's pretending as if he is incapable of doing what is needed to be done to rein in these companies. He doesn't have the authority, even though he's the head of the regulatory agency that oversees these companies. As the lover explains, facing pressure from lawmakers and his own party after a spate of train derailments, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has now resorted to falsely suggesting that he does not have power to compel the rail industry to upgrade its safety equipment and procedures. In a Twitter thread posted more than a week after Norfolk Southern's fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Buttigieg indicated that he cannot reinstate an Obama-enacted Trump-repealed law requiring some trains carrying hazardous materials to replace their Civil War era braking systems with new electronically controlled pneumatic brake technology. Quote, we're constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation, like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015, Buttigieg wrote, Buttigieg's tweet refers to a law passed by Congress in 2015 at the urging of the railroad industry requiring the executive branch to conduct cost-benefit analysis of the ECP brake rule before enacting it. Trump used that law to kill the braking rule, but the cost-benefit analysis his administration used to do so was subsequently discredited. So in short, Buttigieg is saying, well, I wish that we could do something, but we can't unfortunately re-enact that rule because we have to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Right, but you have the authority to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, so why aren't you doing it? I mean, Trump's administration was discredited, so all you have to do is quickly conduct some half-assed cost-benefit analysis and then, boom, reinstate the rule. But no, he's not doing that. Why? Because he doesn't want to do that. It's the same thing with the airline industry and their debacle during the holiday season. These companies have essentially been allowed to regulate themselves and government is complicit in everything that they're doing. Now, one more thing that I want to read to you from that same lever report. So Buttigieg's agency is currently considering a separate rule that would weaken brake testing standards. So it's not that Buttigieg doesn't have the authority to regulate this industry. He just doesn't want to because, like all neoliberals, he believes that deregulation is going to lead to growth. And sure, maybe that is the case, that comes at the cost of people's lives and their health being in danger. And this company is getting away with it. Won't face the people who they poisoned and they're under no fear whatsoever of nationalization when this company should be nationalized yesterday. It's just genuinely sickening and yet so predictable at the same time. And it's not the only industry that needs to be regulated again, but it's just one of many examples as to how our system has let these corporations govern themselves. And we've seen the result, it's been disastrous, but still government refuses to do what it needs to do across administrations, right? Democrats usually take baby steps and water down, you know, policies to regulate these companies, and then Republicans come in and do that. And then Democrats won't redo what Republicans undid. It's called the ratchet effect and it's deeply frustrating, but here we are. But trains will continue to derail and people will continue to be poisoned so long as companies like Norfolk Southern can get away with it.