Action Alerts

We need common-sense safety solutions for trains carrying hazardous materials

What's At Stake

In 2012, a train carrying a petrochemical called vinyl chloride, an input in making plastic, derailed in New Jersey, releasing 23,000 gallons into the air. A decade later, a train carrying the same toxic chemical derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, exposing residents to toxic gases linked to serious health harm and contaminating the air, soil, and a major water source used by millions of people.

The Department of Transportation, the federal agency that oversees our country’s railroads, can strengthen safety requirements that prevent these types of disasters. Urge Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to write commonsense safety rules for trains carrying hazardous materials.

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Petrochemicals are toxic chemicals derived from oil and gas that are used to make paint, adhesives, plastics, and more. As the U.S. shifts to clean energy, fossil fuel companies are turning to petrochemicals to protect their profits. Vinyl chloride has been linked to deadly diseases like liver, brain, and lung cancers. Short-term exposure to high levels can cause dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, and headaches. And vinyl chloride is extremely volatile. When trains carrying these hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals derail, explosions can happen, contaminating nearby waterways, soil, and air.

For years, the railroads have fought all kinds of basic safety regulations to keep spending at a minimum, even if it means risking chemical disasters that can irreversibly harm human health, animals, and the environment. A decade ago, Earthjustice and its clients sought to modernize braking systems on trains carrying explosive crude oil, and yet even that narrow safety measure was repealed. When it comes to the transport of hazardous and flammable cargo, we need strong regulations that will protect the health and safety of communities.

Join Earthjustice and our clients to call on the Department of Transportation to modernize the federal rail brake systems required for all trains carrying explosively toxic materials. Let the agency know that you are following their actions closely and that they must act on the rulemaking process to protect communities and the environment.

A train carrying oil travels through California.
A train carrying oil travels through California. (Photo courtesy of Russ Allison Loar)

Delivery to the Department of Transportation

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.