Senators express frustration with Norfolk Southern CEO’s noncommittal answers during tense hearing

Senators grew visibly frustrated during a tense congressional hearing on the Feb. 3 train derailment that spilled hazardous chemicals in an Ohio town as the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, met their push for concrete policy commitments with noncommittal answers.

“I just really thought, when you said ‘turn over a new leaf,’ you meant you were saying you were going to now support safety regulations,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw. “I’m sorry you can’t tell this crowd today that would like to hear that, that that is the case.” 

During his opening statement on Thursday, Shaw apologized for the crash’s impact.

“I want to begin today by expressing how deeply sorry I am for the impact this derailment has had on the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities,” Shaw said, later adding, “I am determined to make this right.”

Yet, when pressed to support safety changes and pay for long-term health expenses or medical testing, Shaw did not make any specific commitments. 

Asked if he supported a bipartisan bill that would tighten railroad security procedures and increase federal oversight of some rules that are largely at the discretion of railroads, Shaw said he supported the legislation’s “intent” of railroad safety, but did not say if he supported the actual bill. 

“We are committed to the legislative intent to make rail safer. Norfolk Southern runs a safe railroad,” he said. “We can always get better and that is my intent: to continue to invest and continue to improve.”

When asked by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) about whether he’d pay long term health costs for residents of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area, Shaw did not make any explicit commitments. 

“Everything is on the table,” Shaw said when asked by Sanders whether he’d commit to covering all health care costs for residents. 

Sanders also attempted to get Shaw to commit to guaranteeing at least seven paid sick days to all of the company’s workers, but the executive did not do so. 

“I share your focus on our employees. I will commit to continuing to discuss with them important quality of life issues,” Shaw replied

The Vermont senator eventually responded: “With all due respect, you sound like a politician here Mr. Shaw.”

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R), along with Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), were present as witnesses rather than members of the panel and did not directly interact with Shaw but were sharply critical of Norfolk Southern’s business practices in their own remarks. Vance decried the notion of the rail industry resisting safety regulations even as it receives federal subsidies, as well as a December bill that blocked railroad workers’ unions from striking.

Brown, meanwhile, called East Palestine “the kind of community that’s so often forgotten and exploited by corporate America,” accusing the company of profiting from cutbacks to safety staff and procedures.

“Norfolk’s profits have gone up and up and up, and look what happened,” he said.

The hearing follows the high-profile derailment last month of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine that spilled chemicals including carcinogenic vinyl chloride into the nearby community.

In the wake of the incident, residents have been expressing concern for their health and safety. Federal and state officials have said that the area’s air is safe, and have also said water testing did not find contamination, but some still encouraged residents to drink bottled water. 

Senators of both parties came down harshly on Shaw and Norfolk Southern, with some GOP members also criticizing the communications by federal officials in the immediate aftermath of the derailment and expressing interest in examining the Biden administration’s response, which Republicans have characterized as being too slow.

“The public deserved a better level of transparency and much, much sooner,” Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “It’s 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 … we need to understand why it took the EPA so long to get accurate data to the public.”

Capito also pressed EPA Regional Administrator Debra Shore on waste removal and how long it took the agency to test for dioxins – toxic chemicals that can come from burning vinyl chloride. Shortly after several initial loads of waste from the site were shipped to licensed facilities, some in other states and others in Ohio, the EPA briefly halted shipments before resuming.

Shore described dioxins as “secondary byproducts” and said that initial tests showing low levels of other substances indicated that significant dioxin levels were unlikely. 

The hearing did bring some positive news, with Shore saying that testing for dioxins in Indiana found very low levels of the substances. 

The hearing comes as pressure has been building on President Biden to visit East Palestine, following administration officials like EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s own trips to the town. However, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) made the hearing’s only mention of the idea, encouraging the president to visit. In a press call Wednesday preceding the hearing, both Carper and Capito encouraged Biden to do so, with Carper saying he believed such a visit is currently in the works.