USA: President Joe Biden insisted that there was no "request" for him to travel to East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a recent train derailment and significant toxic chemical spill, and that he has no plans to go there.
When asked if he would visit the disaster-stricken town, Biden responded, "At this point, I'm not," while speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday. The president continued to defend his administration's handling of the spill while providing no justification for the decision to not meet with East Palestine residents, despite vociferous criticism from Republicans.
You know, we arrived there two hours after the train left. Therefore, it is simply false to say that we are not engaged, he said. And before I left for Kiev, there was not a request for me to go out, so I'm keeping a very close eye on it. We are attempting everything.
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Inquiries into Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's response to the chemical spill have been opened by Republican members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on the grounds that the senior official "ignored the catastrophe for over a week."
Republicans wrote to Buttigieg that the incident "is an environmental and public health emergency that now threatens Americans across state lines." "The American people demand explanations for the derailment's cause, and the Department of Transportation] must offer justification for its leadership's complacency in the face of this emergency."
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Norfolk Southern, the railroad that ran the train that derailed in East Palestine, has acknowledged that the incident happened as a result of a wheel bearing failure on the vehicle and that sensors on the train that should have detected the malfunction were not functioning properly.
Intense friction in the bearing caused temperatures to reach 215 degrees Fahrenheit, which ignited a box car and spread to 11 additional cars carrying hazardous materials.
After temperatures inside one of the vinyl chloride tanks continued to rise to unsafe levels, officials decided to perform a controlled burn on the site to prevent an explosion. Residents of East Palestine and nearby towns have pressed local officials for assurances that their communities are safe, but the move has raised fears of significant environmental contamination.
