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Subscribe to RSSThe Obama administration announced Thursday that it will roll back safety rules for railroad lines that don't carry passengers or dangerous cargo.
After a train wreck killed 25 people in Southern California in 2008, Congress required railroad companies to install systems to automatically put on the brakes to avoid a collision. Industry groups pushed hard to have the rules relaxed, enlisting support from key Republicans and within the Obama administration, which has been eager to blunt claims that it has added unnecessary regulations on industry.
The environmental reporting group FairWarning has a full story on today's change.
FairWarning reported here on Open Channel in January on rail industry lobbying to relax the rules.
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This still won't keep his poll numbers from continuing to plummet downward .... "LOL"
You're right Big Ben!
Obama could walk on water and some people (esp the rightie RepubliCONS) would point at him and sneer, "SEE! Obama can't swim!"
LOL
Enlisting support from key Republicans!!! WTF - the Reps have always been against the railroads. Reduced to selling their souls to the highest bidder?
Obama's numbers will plummet so we can all be exited by the election and the media can whip us up into a voting frenzy. I hope we all do go out and vote but B.O. is going to continue stinking up the White House for another 4 years and do it by winning a landslide election. Then we will elect another "voice". One that will continue to ruin our country. That is if anything that resembles a United States is left in 4 years.
OBAMA CAVING IN TO MONEY MONGERS of GREED !!! What the HELL is HE DOING ??? Did someone slip him a MICKEY ??????
The WHOLE GOVERNMENT IS DONE FOR. It has turned to CHAOS & MAYHEM !!!
It seems the PEOPLE (CITIZENS) are now totally forgotten!!!!
All REGULATIONS are good for the MASS OF THE POPULATION. It SAVES lives and gives protections from the GREEDY ONES !!!!
You are misguided, ill informed and incorrect,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,quite possibly impaired as well.
Paidmyfee..One can only hope that Alain is using sarcasm in his post. I live not too far from where that train wreck occurred in 2008. It was just terrible! I fail to see how installing automatic brakes to avoid a collision is going to work. When the train wreck in 2008 happened the trains were almost on top of each other. There was not a great deal of track left between the trains when the 2 trians collided. The siding and the impact site were not that far from each other. Automatic brakes most likely would not have made a lot of differences except that maybe the trains would not have collided at a higher speed. Anything is better than nothing, but stricter rules need to be considered. I know that it is expensive to run 2 sets of tracks like they did years ago, but maybe the railroads should reconsider 2 sets of tracks just for the safety of their employees and customers.
..deregulation - good for business.