Norfolk Southern CEO faces Senate grilling over toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw faced a Senate grilling Thursday as Washington lawmakers held their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del. pointedly asked Shaw: "Yes or no: Will you commit that Norfolk Southern will be there for as long as it takes to make East Palestine, Ohio, Darlington Township in Pennsylvania, and the surrounding communities whole from this disaster?"

"I'm terribly sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the folks of that community. And yes, it's my personal commitment that's Norfolk Southern that we're going to be there for as long as it takes to help East Palestine thrive and recover. That's my personal commitment," Shaw responded during a hearing that spanned more than three hours.

"I am determined to make this right. Norfolk Southern will claim the site safely, thoroughly and with urgency. You have my personal commitment," he said earlier in his opening statement.

On the eve of his Senate testimony, Shaw said his company was committed to improve rail safety in a Washington Post op-ed.

"We are not waiting to act" while NTSB investigates what happened in East Palestine, and probing Norfolk Southern's safety culture overall, Shaw wrote.

"We are firmly committed to the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania," Shaw continued. "Many of the people I've met are angry, scared and concerned about the future. I understand their skepticism that a big corporation such as Norfolk Southern will do the right thing, and we are determined to earn their trust."

While there is bipartisan concern about preventing future derailments involving hazardous materials, early in Thursday's hearing, it became clear there is a partisan divide in assessing how the Biden administration has responded to the Ohio incident. Carper, in his opening remarks, took time to thank the EPA for what he said was quick action.

"It's worth noting that the Biden administration has been on the ground from day one. As we will hear today, the EPA, working alongside state and local partners, arrived in East Palestine within hours after the derailment and has maintained a presence ever since. In fact, Administrator Regan has visited the area three times already," Carper said.

But Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia criticized the EPA for what she said was a lack of transparency that left citizens in East Palestine scared and confused.

"The public deserved a better level of transparency and much much sooner. A month after the accident it is clear to me that the EPA's risk communication strategy fell short in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Impacted communities were clamoring for answers," Capito said.

She said citizens of East Palestine were directed to generic EPA websites and left uncertain about what actions would be taken to protect them.

"Why did it take weeks for the EPA administrator to drink the water he repeatedly told residents was safe?" Capito questioned. "Why did it take almost a month to establish a response center and go door to door to East Palestine families concerned?

EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore, another witness Thursday, acknowledged that East Palestine residents are “understandably worried and some are scared.”

“Every time a train whistle blows they're reminded of the trauma inflicted upon them by Norfolk Southern,” she said.

“While EPA is encouraged by the data, we also recognize that the people of East Palestine still question the health and safety of their community and their loved ones,” she said, pointing to the test results she says have still reflected that the air and water are okay-- a sentiment for which East Palestine residents audibly resisted from her at a town hall last week.

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, who introduced bipartisan railroad safety legislation last week, appeared as witnesses, in addition to representatives from the EPA, Ohio EPA, Beaver County Department of Emergency Services and Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission.

"If Norfolk Southern had paid a little more attention to safety, and a little less attention to its profits had cared a little more about the Ohioans along its tracks in a little less about its executives and shareholders, these accidents would not have been bad or maybe not happened at all," Brown, a Democrat, said Thursday. "It's Norfolk Southern's responsibility to keep its workers safe on the job. This company has failed to do its job, over and over and over."

Vance, a conservative Republican, said his party is facing a choice of whether to back a billion-dollar industry or the working class people he said the Republican Party has increasingly come to represent.

He spoke of working across the aisle with Democrats -- even bucking some members of his party -- to deliver effective rail safety legislation to benefit Ohio's working class.

"We are faced with a choice with this legislation and how we respond to this crisis. Do we do the bidding of a massive industry that is embedded with big government? Or do we do the bidding of the people who elected us to the Senate into the Congress in the first place?" he said.

Shaw did not commit specifically when asked if he'd support the proposed bipartisan Railway Safety Act, though noting that Norfolk Southern would commit to the “legislative intent to make rail safer.”

“We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer. Norfolk Southern runs a safe railroad and it's my commitment to improve that safety and make our safety culture the best in the industry. Just last year, derailments on Norfolk Southern were the lowest they had been in the last 10 years. And our personal injury rate is amongst the lowest in the industry,” he said.

The hearing comes on the heels of a second derailment on Saturday and after the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it would launch a special investigation of Norfolk Southern's safety and culture. The last time the NTSB made such a move was in 2014, when it investigated Metro North for several significant accidents.

"Given the number and significance of recent Norfolk Southern accidents, the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate action today to review and assess its safety practices, with the input of employees and others, and implement necessary changes to improve safety," the NTSB said.

Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern also reported a fatal injury of one of their conductors -- in addition to several precious fatal accidents of their employees in recent years.