Tag: vinyl chloride

Two Pennsylvania State Senators Take Up Rail Safety Bill

Bradley Vasoli

Two Pennsylvania state senators announced this week they are introducing a companion bill to a house-passed measure designed to improve rail safety.

Senate action on the bill sponsored by State Senators Katie Muth (D-Royersford) and Lindsey Williams (D-Pittsburgh) would advance the legislation toward Governor Josh Shapiro’s (D) desk. The house version passed that chamber 141-62 earlier this month with the support of all Democratic representatives and a sizable minority of Republicans. 

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Pennsylvania GOP State Lawmaker Proposes Freight-Train Length Limit

Bradley Vasoli

A Republican Pennsylvania lawmaker is urging colleagues to cosponsor state-level legislation to limit a freight train’s length to no greater than 8,500 feet.

State Representative Louis Schmitt, Jr. (R-Altoona) reasoned in a memorandum describing his proposal that the February 3 derailment in East Palestine, less than half a mile from Pennsylvania’s western border, shows current rail-safety requirements are inadequate. 

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Norfolk Southern CEO Tells Pennsylvania Senate Panel State Authorities Were ‘Aligned’ on Vent-and-Burn

Bradley Vasoli

Norfolk Southern Corp. Chief Executive Officer Alan Shaw told Pennsylvania lawmakers on Monday that the response to February’s Ohio train derailment “worked” and that state officials thoroughly backed it. 

Shaw’s appearance before the state Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee came about as a result of a subpoena earlier this month after the rail-company executive initially declined to speak to the panel. Senators also subpoenaed the corporation’s internal communications related to the wreck, some of which committee Chair Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) said have been turned over and others of which he says he still awaits. 

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Pennsylvania Emergency Director Says Rail Companies Have ‘Broad Latitude’ to Handle Derailments

Bradley Vasoli

Alongside fellow lawmakers at the Darlington Fire Company on Tuesday, Pennsylvania state Representative Eric Nelson (R-Greensburg) asked Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Acting Director Randy Padfield who has final say over what to do with a wrecked train carrying toxic chemicals: the rail company or state government? 

At the hearing of the Pennsylvania House Bipartisan Policy Committee, Nelson said he wanted to know whether Pennsylvania emergency and environmental officials could decide whether to approve or quash plans to incinerate a certain number of rail cars on such a train if it crashed in the Keystone State.

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Mastriano Bill for Train-Wreck Emergency Grants Passes Pennsylvania Senate Committee

Bradley Vasoli

Legislation to aid Pennsylvanians affected by the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical incineration passed a state Senate panel unanimously last week. 

Senator Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Chambersburg) authored the bill and chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee which approved it. His measure would establish the Train Derailment Emergency Grant Program to cover impacted individuals’ medical bills, income losses, small-business expenses, property-value depletions, decontamination costs and relocation expenses. The policy now awaits consideration by the full Senate. 

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Norfolk Southern Faces New Pennsylvania Lawsuit over Ohio Derailment

Bradley Vasoli

The Pittsburgh-based law firm Lynch Carpenter and the Philadelphia-based firm Seeger Weiss this week announced new class-action litigation against the Norfolk Southern rail company for the aftereffects of the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

After the accident, Norfolk Southern personnel ordered the venting and burning of five of the train’s cars containing toxic vinyl chloride. The release-and-burn strategy has since drawn widespread denunciation after citizens and public officials pointed out apparent deleterious health and environmental consequences. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) initially supported the “controlled burn” but later reversed himself, claiming he was not informed that the rail corporation would incinerate five cars instead of one.

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Ohio Senators Ask Federal Agencies to Monitor Health of East Palestine Residents over Long Term

Bradley Vasoli

U.S. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) this week sent a letter to heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) urging long-term health monitoring of East Palestine, Ohio residents. 

Vance and Brown asked EPA Administrator Michael Regan and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to guarantee baseline medical testing for those living near the site of the February 3 train derailment. The rail company Norfolk Southern followed the incident with what the company termed a “controlled burn” of five cars containing vinyl chloride. 

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Texas, Michigan Officials Say They Weren’t Warned Before Receiving Contaminated Ohio Soil, Water

Just the News

Officials in Texas and Michigan said they were not informed before their states received shipments of contaminated water and soil from East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed with toxic chemicals and caused a public health and environmental crisis earlier this month.

Norfolk Southern, the rail company leading cleanup efforts after its train carrying vinyl chloride derailed Feb. 3, had contracted with licensed waste disposal facilities in Texas and Michigan to dispose of hazardous waste from the Ohio derailment, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said Saturday.

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Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro: Norfolk Southern Conducted Controlled Burn of Vinyl Chloride After Withholding Vital Information

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) is distancing himself further from Norfolk Southern Corp. on decision-making following the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, one quarter-mile west of Beaver County in Pennsylvania. 

The governor last week sent a letter to Norfolk Southern President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Shaw last Tuesday underscoring the concerns of many residents and officials from affected areas after a controlled vent and burn of toxic chemicals the train was carrying. Shapiro followed up that letter with an announcement that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection would conduct water testing in the region, independent of monitoring by the federal government, to determine if environmental safety has worsened.

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Woke ESG Management Fund BlackRock Owns 6 Percent of Norfolk Southern, Whose Train Derailed in Ohio

Michael Patrick Leahy

Black Rock owns more than 6 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway, the huge railway company whose train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, causing what many are describing as an ecological and health disaster for residents of Ohio and nearby Pennsylvania.

Fintel.io reports that as of February 16, 2023, Black Rock owns 6.8 percent of Norfolk Southern Railway.

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