Vance will be joined by Gov. Mike DeWine and both of Ohio’s U.S. senators, as well as new U.S. EPA Director Lee Zeldin.
Vice President JD Vance is set to lead a group of Ohio officials to East Palestine on Monday to commemorate the second anniversary of a hazardous train derailment in the village of Columbiana County.
The delegation will include Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Sen. Bernie Moreno, Sen. Jon Husted, and the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin. While specific plans for the visit have not been disclosed, it is reported that Vance will oversee the cleanup progress and engage with local leaders and residents.
“I am honored to join Vice President Vance on the visit to East Palestine and am committed to collaborating closely with the Trump administration to ensure that the affected Ohioans receive the necessary assistance,” stated Moreno. “President Trump and Vice President Vance have demonstrated unwavering support for the residents of East Palestine from the outset, unlike the previous administration.”
It was Feb. 3, 2023, when a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in the village, causing a number of toxic materials to burn into the air or seep into nearby waterways. Officials eventually conducted a controlled release of several cars carrying vinyl chloride, a move the National Transportation Safety Board said was likely unnecessary despite Norfolk Southern’s assertions of safety concerns.
In its final report, the NTSB blamed a failed axel bearing for the wreck, and made more than 30 safety recommendations to help prevent future incidents from occurring. In the months since the disaster, East Palestine residents have expressed deep concerns over the environment and long-term health effects in the town, and Norfolk Southern has spent hundreds of millions of dollars both paying for the cleanup and reaching financial settlements with the village (though some legal actions are still pending).
The crash also quickly turned into a political football, with Republicans claiming Democrats were inadequate in their efforts to help the rural Eastern Ohio community. President Joe Biden’s administration countered by noting that federal workers were on the ground in East Palestine almost immediately after the derailment, and DeWine also confirmed at the time that Biden had promised “anything you need” to assist (the governor initially did not call the president back).
The question of whether Biden would visit the village also generated controversy. Mayor Trent Conaway — who initially said he and others in the town didn’t “want to be political pawns” — at first said a trip by Biden “would actually be more harm than good” due to security concerns before switching course and blasting the president for a foreign visit to Ukraine, claiming, “That tells you right now he doesn’t care about us.”
The White House eventually promised Biden would travel to East Palestine, but he did not do so until this past February. Conaway ended up speaking at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor who visited the site in the weeks following the crash. Trump was reelected to a second non-consecutive term as president in November and took office on Jan. 20.
During his two years in the U.S. Senate, Vance emerged as a leading voice seeking accountability for the disaster. He and his then-Democratic Senate colleague Sherrod Brown even helped co-sponsor bipartisan legislation seeking to bolster railway safety regulations, but the bill never came up for a vote.
