• TheModerateTankie [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Never forget that dark Brandon intervened against the union on behalf of the people mismanaging our railroads, and all the liberals applauded.

  • Lovely_sombrero [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    A train derailed because the train company (owned by Buffett) is being crazy with their "cost optimization". Burning the chemicals probably is the best solution once you are in this situation, since they turn to gas at like ~10F. I don't know if there is an alternative. My guess is that the evacuation zone is waaay too small. Also, most of the chemicals will just fall back to Earth as acid rain, no?

    • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Way too small for the chemical byproduct of burning vinyl chloride being gaseous hydrochloric acid.

      • Lovely_sombrero [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        And I doubt they can achieve a perfect burn of all the vinyl chloride either. I'm sure some got out.

        • Llituro [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          yeah, this feels like one of those events where they do a study in 30 years and find early cancer deaths and birth defects or whatever

    • BowlingForDeez [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Do you have any more sources about the railroad owners or management or the cost optimization?

      • Lovely_sombrero [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They are creating these huge train compositions of hundreds of train cars. Then they lobby to make sure that the cost of maintenance/upgrades is as low as possible - https://twitter.com/moetkacik/status/1623771792723566592

        in 2007 a Norfolk Southern company newsletter hailed "historic" new brakes that operated simultaneously throughout the length of freight trains. By 2017 NS was lobbying to repeal rules requiring ECP brakes on hazmat trains. he lobbyists won.

        Of course there are other problems as well, like overworking their employees etc.

  • SaniFlush [any, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    If you have to ask if you’re downwind of this disaster, the answer is yes.

  • FnordPrefect [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Good thing a huge mass of rain didn't just sweep through the area and over Lakes Ontario and Erie and several pretty large population centers...:doomjak:

    • Blep [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Here i was thinking the great lakes would be relatively better off for the climate collapsr

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Looks to me like Evan Lambert of News Nation is winning the award for excellence in journalism, jesus fucking christ

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It took me way too long to figure out that "East Palestine" is a village in Ohio, USA and not in the middle east.

    • Wheaties [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I wonder if this is why I've heard nothing about this outside of the odd twitter screen cap posted here.

      Like, if it was "Pleasantvile, Ohio" more people might take notice.

  • mkultrawide [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    You know ThE sQuAd is useless be cause any meaningful progressive opposition would be hammering Biden over this and blaming it on him for forcing through that railroad bill.

    • edge [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      and blaming it on him for forcing through that railroad bill

      lmao they voted for it, so they can't do that even if they want to.

  • BowlingForDeez [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    President Scab and Mayo Pete should have to personally pick through the refuse for survivors as penance for their allowance of this.

  • familiar [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I guess the EPA was asked at the press conference "so you're doing testing to figure out if it's safe to return, can you clarify what you're testing for?" and the EPA guy just turns to the rail company guy for assurance as he says "vinyl chloride right? yeah, vinyl chloride" or something like that .

    The "mandatory evacuation" was just lifted, much to the convenience of the railroad, since they don't have to compensate anyone for forcibly being out of their homes. Of course, neither the rail company nor government is willing or able to confirm that it actually is safe to return.

  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Foh4rsuWcAAQOh4?format=jpg&name=medium

    Goddamn that's a bleak image.

    • mop [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      pretty sure that's from the movie white noise (2022)

  • opsecisgay [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    How far away from the explosion is realistically effected? How far away should people have (had) their windows closed? 10km? 100km? 1000km?