Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a train derailment and chemical spill earlier this month, on Thursday, a day after former President Donald Trump's tour of the site, NBC News reported.
"The secretary is going now that the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] has said it is moving out of the emergency response phase and transitioning to the long-term remediation phase," a department spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News. "His visit also coincides with the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] issuing its factual findings of the investigation into the cause of the derailment and will allow the secretary to hear from U.S. DOT [Department of Transportation] investigators who were on the ground within hours of the derailment to support the NTSB's investigation."
Trump on Wednesday visited the small town of about 5,000 people where a Norfolk Southern 150-car freight train carrying 20 hazardous material cars went off the rails Feb. 3, resulting in a massive fire and later a controlled release and burn-off of toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride, causing a large mushroom cloud of black smoke rising over the community and the settling of the particles into the ground.
Buttigieg will be the first high-level member of President Joe Biden's administration to visit the site, something Trump and several Republicans have criticized since the wreck.
Buttigieg's visit will coincide with the release Thursday of the initial NTSB investigation into the derailment, the NTSB said in a media advisory.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Trump's scheduled visit Wednesday was meant to contrast with the inaction of Biden and his administration to engage with that community where residents have expressed fears about the air, ground, and water supply being contaminated by the chemicals spilled in the crash.
Although he hasn't visited Ohio, Biden on Monday made a surprise trip to Ukraine, where he announced another $500 million in U.S. aid to help in its war with Russia — a fact not lost on the locals in Ohio.
"What's he doing? Popping balloons from China," East Palestine resident William Huger, 56, told the Times, referring to Biden and the recent downing of a Chinese spy balloon. "Now the Democrats are going to get all jumpy because the Republicans are showing them up."
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