Ohio sues Norfolk Southern over toxic train derailment

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Ohio filed a lawsuit against railroad Norfolk Southern to make sure it pays for the cleanup and environmental damage caused by a fiery train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border last month, the state’s attorney general said Tuesday.

The federal lawsuit also seeks to force the company to pay for groundwater and soil monitoring in the years to come and economic losses in the village of East Palestine and surrounding areas, said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. “The fallout from this highly preventable accident is going to reverberate throughout Ohio for many years to come,” Yost said.

No one was hurt in the Feb. 3 derailment, but half of the roughly 5,000 residents of East Palestine had to evacuate for days when responders intentionally burned toxic chemicals in some of the derailed cars to prevent an uncontrolled explosion, leaving residents with lingering health concerns. Government officials say tests over the past month haven’t found dangerous levels of chemicals in the air or water in the area.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw apologized before Congress last week for the impact the derailment has had on East Palestine and the surrounding communities, but he didn’t make specific commitments to pay for long-term health and economic harm.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-lawsuit-norfolk-southern-07a9727b4cdf8f6758a7d834431a38c1?taid=6410c43bd1a53800012d34db

[crickets]

1. GOOD. nt

[DENVERPOPS]

2. Yea good luck

The EPA sued Exxon for the Exxon Valdez clean up. It wandered it's way slowly up thru years of different appellate courts and finally landed in the US. Supreme Court when W (actually Cheney) was running the nation.

As I remember, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Exxon should pay the Six Billion to clean it up properly.....
AND Exxon said: screw you.
And as far as I know, they never paid.......

Usually the DOJ would freeze every bank account of Exxon's, and enforce the ruling to the best of their ability to get the money.
Under W and Cheney, (A big oil man with Halliburton Oil), last I heard Exxon paid NADA..........

British Petroleum also got away without doing a large amount of the needed cleanup in the Gulf Oil well blowout, among other bad things they did.......

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. Exactly. Lawsuit probably written by the company. Avoids criminal responsibility.

[DENVERPOPS]

5. Exactly

they allowed BP to decide on what needed to be done, and then BP walked away, fat, dumb and happy.

AND Florida went right along with it and remained Republican, exactly the same as Alaska remained Republican.

Oh, AND by the way: the damages from the Gulf Blowout are still continuing and will for quite some time, and from other some what lesser Oil well leaks in the Gulf off the coast of Florida that are continuing with NOTHING being done....

[Alexander Of Assyria]

3. Where's the criminal indictments?? This is welcomed by the Oligarchs...settle for a few pennies.

Are we all satisfied with a long drawn out lawsuit while criminal prosecution goes unmentioned?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Read this

It is very informative and breaks down the issue very to the point and succinctly, having a clear idea of how the federal government works (and how it can't based on statute) - https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/dot-epa-to-n-s-fool-around-and-find-out/

The key part is this -

(snip)

There’s been a lot of criticism accusing Buttigieg, the DOT, and FRA for a weak response to Norfolk Southern’s actions. That criticism, however, ignores the reality that the freight rail industry – indeed, American business across all sectors – has spent hundreds of millions of lobbying dollars in the past 40 years systematically dismantling regulatory authorities designed to protect Americans from this kind of disaster.

DOT and the modal agencies, including FRA, have been kneecapped repeatedly over decades. Today the maximum possible fine for Norfolk Southern, even for an egregious violation involving hazardous materials and even if it resulted in fatalities (which so far it hasn’t), is $225,455. DOT notes that “this is a rounding error for a company that reported an astonishing record annual operating income in 2022 of $4.8 billion and has posted operating margins approaching 40%.”

“Major derailments in the past have been followed by calls for reform – and by vigorous resistance by your industry to increased safety measures,” Buttigieg wrote to N-S’s Shaw. “This must change.”

Citing a litany of serious and deadly derailments in 2011, 2012, and 2013, in his letter Buttigieg pointed to several specific changes in rules and laws proposed to address the issues in those derailments. But “rather than support these efforts to improve rail safety, Norfolk Southern and other rail companies spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose common-sense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others.”

(snip)

[Alexander Of Assyria]

7. Lobbying equal meaning to corruption. All legal?!. All maddening.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. As well they should