President Joe Biden will visit Ohio to mark the first anniversary of a toxic and costly train derailment that occurred in East Palestine, less than a mile from the Pennsylvania border.
On February 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying 53 cars derailed and caught fire near the town. The result was the spillage of roughly 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride, a toxic and flammable gas.
The rail freight carrier’s chief financial officer said in April of last year that the company had incurred costs for legal expenses, site cleanup, settlements, and restoration to the tune of $387 million, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
An unnamed White House official confirmed that President Biden will visit the town this month to discuss his administration’s “comprehensive, whole-of-government response” on railroad safety, according to Fox News. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously told reporters that the president would visit the town when it would be the “most helpful to the community.”
Trent Conaway, mayor of East Palestine, told Fox, “The President is always welcome to our town.” However, he also noted, “I don’t know what he would do here now.”
Residents of the town have expressed disapproval over the president visiting now in part due to his not having visited previously. DJ Yokley, a town resident, told Fox that Biden was only visiting due to this year’s presidential election.
“The American people have awakened to realize that … the leader of our country did not show up to the greatest catastrophe of 2023,” said Yokley, per Fox. “Now he’s going to show up because it is an election year, and obviously, the polls show that President Trump came and supported us when he didn’t have to, and I think we saw right through it from the beginning.”
Former President Donald Trump had previously visited the town weeks after the event alongside Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and other local leaders on February 22 last year and criticized the federal government’s response to the disaster.
“In too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal,” said Trump at the time, according to PBS.
The Dallas Express reached out to the White House for more information on the president’s visit but did not immediately receive a response.
