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Podcast host Joe Rogan has criticized Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for comments he made about construction workers and his apparent slow reaction to addressing the Ohio train derailment earlier this month.
Rogan specifically referred to a speech in which Buttigieg stated that he believed too many white people were working on construction sites and that this had historically led to neighborhoods of color not benefiting from infrastructure projects.
But Rogan argued that Buttigieg’s comments showed “a profound lack of understanding” about the importance “of skilled labor” in construction.
‘You know he gave a speech the other day about how there are too many white people working on construction sites?’ Rogan began, speaking to the audience about him.
“We’ve heard too many stories from past generations of infrastructure where you have a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that eventually sees the project come to them, but everyone with helmets on that project, they seem to be paying well.” jobs, it doesn’t look like they were coming from anywhere near the neighborhood,’ Buttigieg said at the conference.
Rogan emphasized that hiring skilled workers was crucial to the success of construction projects and that such workers may need to be brought in from outside the community.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg faced criticism from Joe Rogan on his podcast this week over recent comments he made about construction workers.
Buttigieg blatantly ignored a noxious mushroom cloud of smoke emanating from burning toxic chemicals spewed from a train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio for up to 10 days after the crash.
That’s skilled labor. For example, you have to hire people who are really good at it. And if they don’t exist in that community, you have to hire them outside that community’, suggested Rogan.
“If you see what happens when you have unskilled labor and unskilled people working on buildings, you have disasters,” he continued.
Buttigieg received criticism earlier in the week for giving a public speech on infrastructure and failing to mention a massive trail derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Rogan also placed the blame squarely at the secretary’s feet for the crash of the train carrying toxic chemicals, calling it a “colossal failure on the part of the Department of Transportation.”
It took Buttigieg ten days to say anything in response to the crash, and even then he seemed to place some of the blame on the Trump administration for rolling back a little-known safety rule.
Buttigieg noted Tuesday night that his agency had taken a number of steps to improve rail safety through “historic investments,” but said it was limited by the actions of the Trump administration.
The 41-year-old former mayor specifically pointed to an electronic brake rule that the Trump administration repealed and his own Department of Transportation has made no effort to bring back.
“We are limited by law in some areas of rail regulation (such as the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 due to a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we have to keep people safe. Buttigieg wrote on Twitter.
At one point, Buttigieg appeared to downplay the accident, noting that approximately 1,000 trains derail a year like the one in Eastern Palestine.
“While this horrible situation has received a great deal of attention, there are approximately 1,000 cases a year of train derailments. They obviously have severity levels,’ he said.
Buttigieg continued: “Now this train was subject to certain enhanced requirements because of the hazardous materials on board, but obviously none of that prevented what happened.”
“We are going to pay close attention to the findings that the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] come back,’ he said.
“Rail safety is something that has evolved a lot over the years, but clearly there is more that needs to be done,” Buttigieg told Yahoo Finance.
People living in the area fear long-term cancer risks and ecological devastation. (Top) Toxic smoke plume over East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3, 2023
With little warning, the city’s working-class residents were driven from their homes and evacuated on February 3 after tanker trucks derailed, spilling carcinogens such as vinyl chloride, phosgene and hydrogen chloride.
Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., said it was “unacceptable” that no top Biden administration officials had visited East Palestine, Ohio, until Thursday, 13 days after a Norfolk Southern train was diverted.
“I urge President Biden, Administrator Regan, and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to provide a complete picture of the damage and a comprehensive plan to ensure that the community is supported in the weeks, months, and years ahead, and that this type of accident never happen again. The damage done to East Palestine and the surrounding region is terrible and it is time for those responsible to step up.”
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert went further: ‘Not a single comment on the train wreck in Ohio. Instead, he lamented the whiteness of the construction industry. It is amazing that this country is able to function under this regime.’
Buttigieg on Wednesday pushed back on claims that his department was not helping enough with the fiery derailment that forced some 5,000 people from their homes in a thread on Twitter.
10 days after the crash, Buttigieg finally boarded the Ohio crash
The Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3, spilling various chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a toxic chemical used to produce plastics.
Authorities evacuated some 5,000 residents of the city and did a controlled burn of the chemicals, but allowed them to return days later.
State officials insist that the air and water are safe after the tests. But local residents have shared concerns about the Ohio River, which provides drinking water for millions of people. Some 3,500 fish have turned up dead in the area.
And while the Trump administration struck down a regulation that required modern braking systems on some trains, the Obama administration had already watered down that rule so much that modern braking systems would not have been needed on the train that derailed in eastern Palestine.