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President Biden has been under pressure since the oil spill just a year ago as citizens express frustration with the federal response.
By Erica L. Verde
Report from Washington
President Biden will travel to East Palestine, Ohio, in February to mark the one-year anniversary of the poisonous derailment that plunged the tiny network into an environmental and health crisis, the White House announced Wednesday.
Biden has been criticized by political leaders and citizens for delaying a stopover he promised to make a month after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment. The White House did not say when Biden would do so in February.
The Biden administration has sent a steady stream of resources to East Palestine and oversees the cleanup efforts of Norfolk Southern, the rail company responsible for the derailment. The administration has maintained that the company should be held accountable for the cleanup cost and other remedies.
But political tension has risen as citizens have expressed deep fears about the spread continuing and Republicans have seized on the issue. Former President Donald J. Trump, Biden’s most likely rival in the presidential election, visited eastern Palestine a few weeks ago. after the crisis and told the crowd, “You are forgotten. “
Mr. Biden will meet residents affected by the derailment during his visit next month, an administration official said in the announcement.
The exercise was carrying more than 700,000 pounds of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen used to produce pipe, furniture and packaging, when it went off the track. The derailment saturated the city’s soil, air and waterways with toxins, and the fires created huge plumes of poisonous smoke. on the town, which borders Pennsylvania.
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