The States: Where We Wish Texas Would Secede Already

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

This reminds me of the episode of West Wing (which I started rewatching again the other day) where an oil tanker runs aground. Sam happened to be one of the lawyers involved in creating the liability shield for the company that owned the tanker or operated it or whatever. They were basically untouchable. P

I just finished watching series for first time. I remember that episode!

[Proud2baLaker]

This reminds me of the episode of West Wing (which I started rewatching again the other day) where an oil tanker runs aground. Sam happened to be one of the lawyers involved in creating the liability shield for the company that owned the tanker or operated it or whatever. They were basically untouchable. P

[ticapnews]

From the Lever:
https://***********/LeverNews/status...kid2iSFlvI1PmQ

Stock buybacks!
http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp...hase-prog.html

Mayor Pete is right where he's supposed to be.
https://www.levernews.com/there-will...e-derailments/

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Yeah, the Conservative Twitter Illiterati are trying to whip up a storm on this one and for once they have a point that this story is being largely suppressed. Although from what I can see, their intentions are mainly to get people to blame Big Gubmint for making the decision to burn/bury the chemicals.

Isn’t it their own conservative gov who is threatening journalists?

[LynahFan]

Sorry I thought everyone knew he was bnsf and that they lobbied

Yes, but they neglected to send a note on personalized stationery to alert Drew that they were lobbying, so he didn’t recall it.

[ticapnews]

Was Pete supposed to go back in time and tell Southwest to upgrade their IT?

This is an entirely different situation.

No, he was supposed to stand up for the people, not carry water for corporations.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Yeah, the Conservative Twitter Illiterati are trying to whip up a storm on this one and for once they have a point that this story is being largely suppressed. Although from what I can see, their intentions are mainly to get people to blame Big Gubmint for making the decision to burn/bury the chemicals.

[aparch]

Well that guy quote tweets Trump sometimes so he can **** all the way off and die. (he has other problematic crap as well but that is the easy one)

edit: The ***** retweets stuff about Biden bombing the Nordstream. Nothing this clown says should be trusted even if he says 2+2=4. He thinks China is some paragon of virtue on this stuff as well.

Yikes. I didn't look through the feed, and I saw some posts RT'd by credible people. My bad for not doing my own legwork.

[Handyman]

A big Twitter thread from the Ohio train derailment.

https://***********/FalconryFinance/...34097035059203

Also, Norfolk Southern has offered $25,000 towards the town and cleanup.

Not per day. Not per resident. Not per train car. $25,000 *total.*

Well that guy quote tweets Trump sometimes so he can **** all the way off and die. (he has other problematic crap as well but that is the easy one)

edit: The ***** retweets stuff about Biden bombing the Nordstream. Nothing this clown says should be trusted even if he says 2+2=4. He thinks China is some paragon of virtue on this stuff as well.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Sorry I thought everyone knew he was bnsf and that they lobbied

[dxmnkd316]

I could be wrong but I think Warren buffet helped lobby to loosen restrictions on hazardous material. He obv profits immensely from railroads.

generally think of him to be one of the less harmful billionaires but heâ??s still a billionaire

He was, but not Norfolk. IIRC it's Burlington that's owned by Berkshire.

Either way, it's very possible that BH was involved in that lobbying.

Edit: Welp, here you go
https://www.desmog.com/2015/07/22/se...n-regulations/

Buffettâ??s� BNSF� Ready to Fight� ECP� Brakes, Safety� Requirements


BNSF isn't coy about its intentions to fight the regulations requiringÃ? ECPÃ? brakes on oil trains. At theÃ? U.S.Ã? Energy Information Administration annual conference last month,Ã? BNSFÃ? CEOÃ? Matthew Rose delivered a keynote speech in which he repeatedly criticized theÃ? ECPÃ? requirement in the regulations.

Rose made it clear that� BNSF� had plans to get the rules changed saying, â??the only thing we donâ??t like about it [new regulations] is the electronic brakingâ? and â??this rule will have to be changed in the futureâ? and â??our role is to articulate where they went wrong with it and get it� fixed.â?

So, what has changed with� ECP� braking that� BNSF� is now against it and the new regulations need to be� â??fixedâ??

Nothing. Other than the fact that outfitting the oil trains with� ECP� brakes would cost money. Money the rail industry doesnâ??t want to� spend.

In order to justify this position, the industry has to make the case that� ECP� brakes arenâ??t safer. The American Association of Railroads is currently running ads on Google saying that â??Safety data doesnâ??t support use of� ECP� brakes.â?

[dxmnkd316]

Also, where is Buttigieg after 10 days of this?

Yeah, this isn't a good look. He's the face of transportation. Just tell us what's going on and what's happening. Get the regulatory machine started up in the background so they can hit this hard. Start calling for stricter regulation.

As horrible as this is, it's an opportunity to explain why "regulations are good, actually". We need to pay our rail operators and we need to force these companies to upgrade their equipment.

[Spartanforlife4]

Right where his corporate sponsors want him.

Same as when the airlines went to ****.

Was Pete supposed to go back in time and tell Southwest to upgrade their IT?

This is an entirely different situation.

[Drew S.]

I could be wrong but I think Warren buffet helped lobby to loosen restrictions on hazardous material. He obv profits immensely from railroads.

generally think of him to be one of the less harmful billionaires but he’s still a billionaire

He definitely has invested in railroads a lot in the last 20 years or so but don’t recall him lobbying. He has a lot of insurance interests so that should cause him to be a little cautious on what railroads can get away with.

Do many people remember the big derailment and explosion on the Maine-Canadian border about 10 years ago or has that faded from people’s memory?

[ScoobyDoo]

I can't think of a quote that better sums up life in America since 1980.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/

I can't either. **** this country.

But other Biden appointees arrive in office with much less ambition. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has spent his tenure as King Log, failing to take action on spiraling airline cancellations, confining his major enforcement action to fining foreign airlines while ignoring the out-of-control abuses of America's domestic carriers, except for the also-ran airline Frontier, which accounts for less than 2% of domestic travel:

There are striking similarities between the structural defects in the airlines and the rail companies: both are highly concentrated sectors who have laid off senior staff, attacked unions, and blown billions in public money on stock buybacks and executive bonuses, even as their service degraded.

Both industries have been sharply criticized by experts and industry veterans, who've called for specific regulation. In the case of the airlines, SWA pilots and flight attendants had sounded the alarm about antiquated scheduling systems; for the rail companies, it's experts like Grady Cothen, formerly a top safety expert at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), who told Congress that without action on braking systems, "[there] will be more derailments, more releases of hazardous materials, more communities impacted":

Despite these warnings, and despite the near-misses and smaller disasters that led up to the 100-foot-tall fireball over Ohio, Buttigieg's DOT has not moved to reinstate the Obama-era brake safety rule, deferring to the monopoly rail owners self-serving claim that there is no need for such a move:

That's what happened during the Trump years, when rail lobbyists secured the repeal of a long-overdue, hard-won safety regulation that would have required rail companies to replace the Civil-War-era brakes on their rolling stock with modern electronically controlled pneumatic brakes (ECPs):But other Biden appointees arrive in office with much less ambition. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has spent his tenure as King Log, failing to take action on spiraling airline cancellations, confining his major enforcement action to fining foreign airlines while ignoring the out-of-control abuses of America's domestic carriers, except for the also-ran airline Frontier, which accounts for less than 2% of domestic travel: