"National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday suggests a mechanical issue with an overheated wheel bearing was to blame for the accident.
Prior to the release of the NTSB report, the White House and the media have been eager to pin the cause of the disaster on various deregulatory moves made by the Trump administration.
In particular, they've pointed to the Trump administration's revocation of an Obama-era rule that would have required Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes on all trains carrying exclusively high-flammable cargo.
The 2015 FAST Act required the administration to perform a cost-benefit analysis of requiring ECP brakes, and not go forward with the mandate if it didn't pass that cost-benefit analysis. Obama administration had implemented its ECP mandate without doing a thorough enough analysis of the technology's costs and performance.
However, even if the ECP rule had been in place, it wouldn't have applied to the train that derailed in East Palestine. That train was carrying mixed cargo without enough high-flammable cargo-containing cars to trigger the old ECP rule.
NTSB director Jennifer Homendy said people blaming the accident on the repeal of the ECP rule were spreading "misinformation." The ECP braking rule would've applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars.
That hasn't stopped the "INSTALLED REGIME" from citing the repeal of the ECP rule to USA Today on February 22 as an example of Republicans' efforts to undermine rail safety."
