This accident is America in a nutshell: 1. Rail companies slashed their workforce for short-term profits and share buybacks, cheered on by Wall Street [1]. Rai

This accident is America in a nutshell: 1. Rail companies slashed their workforce for short-term profits and share buybacks, cheered on by Wall Street [1]. Rail workers do not get paid sick leave because of those cuts, prompting Congress to step in an kneecap industrial action aimed at improving safety and working conditions [2]; 2. Obama era rules were proposed for safer brakes (that would've prevented this incident). After lobbying by rail companies, those rules were weakened. The Trump administration scrapped them entirely. The Biden administration and Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg declined to reinstate those rules, let alone make them as tough as originally intended [3]; 3. There are legitimate concerns that this has poisoned the water supply (eg [1]). There are other reports of animals left in East Palestine during evacuation have died; 4. One of the chemicals released (and burned) is vinyl chloride, which becomes hydrochloric acid in contact with water (including moiture in the air). 5. The EPA is doing air testing (eg [5]). Note the company contracted to do the test results: Tetra Tech. This is the same company the US government sued (and some individuals went to prison for) fraud ie falsifying testing to make things appear safer [6]. 6. When a reporter starting asking questions at a news conference about the derailment, such as whether efficiency practices like PSR contributed to the accident, he was arrested [7]; 7. There seems to be little media coverage for what could be an environmental catastrophe. 8. All this while just last week, Biden in the State of the Union address said "Corporations ought to do the right thing" [8]. The only way they will is if you, the government, make them or they sufficiently fear the consequences of not doign the right thing. Why would they when the entire political establishment defends corporate interests (eg against rail workers)? Fines and possibly some payout after a decade of litigation are just the cost of doing business. The leaders responsible for this should end up in jail. [1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/railroads-are-slashing-workers-cheered-on-by-wall-street-to-stay-profitable-amid-trumps-trade-war/2020/01/02/dc757ed4-1603-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/railroads-ar... [2]: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-congress-is-intervening-in-a-labor-dispute-between-railway-companies-and-freight-workers https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/why-congress-is-interve... [3]: https://jacobin.com/2023/02/department-of-transportation-train-brake-regulation-ohio-derailment https://jacobin.com/2023/02/department-of-transportation-tra... [4]: https://www.fastcompany.com/90848025/ohio-train-derailment-toxic-chemicals-pvc-spill-fire-disaster https://www.fastcompany.com/90848025/ohio-train-derailment-t... [5]: https://response.epa.gov/sites/15933/files/Roving%20Air%20Monitoring%20Results%20Summary%20Table_Public_20230210.pdf https://response.epa.gov/sites/15933/files/Roving%20Air%20Mo... [6]: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/U-S-sues-Tetra-Tech-over-Hunters-Point-shipyard-13536013.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/U-S-sues-Tetra-T... [7]: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/us/ohio-train-derailment-reporter-arrested.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/us/ohio-train-derailment-... [8]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/20...