SCANDAL: Evidence Shows Norfolk Southern Lied to Ohio Governor In Order to Chemically Nuke East Palestine—But NOT ONE Politician Calls for Criminal Charges

"I do not have additional comments," spokesperson for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who's received $165,000 from NS over his career, says when asked if Governor will call for criminal investigation

Hey folks, it’s Jordan. Buckle up, this will be a long—but vital—read. I beg you to read in full and share. At the bottom of this story will be the contacts for the politicians connected to this story.

Since corporate media doesn’t care about corporate manslaughter and treachery, you might have missed STUNNING news last week. In a nutshell, during an exchange between U.S. Senator J.D. Vance and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy, Homendy confirmed that Norfolk Southern intentionally—and unnecessarily—detonated five train cars of toxic vinyl chloride chemicals over East Palestine Ohio. In addition, NTSB chair Homendy confirmed the multi-billion dollar railroad company HID vital information from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and East Palestine fire chief Keith Drabick that Oxyvinyls, the owner of the vinyl chloride on those rail cars, had repeatedly advised against detonating the vinyl chloride cars and repeatedly told Norfolk Southern there was no risk of an “uncontrolled explosion” of the vinyl chloride rail cars in the days after the East Palestine derailment.

In case you missed my RAGE-FILLED livestream yesterday on this scandal, here is a short clip:

I’d like to take you behind the scenes of the journalistic process and show you the email and questions I sent to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office yesterday. For context, Yost filed a civil lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over the East Palestine derailment in March 2023. He also filed a lawsuit in April 2023 against a sham charity for stealing donations meant for East Palestine residents.

I also sent a slightly tweaked version of the below email to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle A. Henry, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, and Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey.

My email to OH AG Yost:

Good Morning,

This is independent journalist Jordan Chariton with Status Coup News.

As I'm sure you saw, last week yielded fairly stunning facts about the Norfolk Southern East Palestine train derailment as NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed to Senator J.D. Vance:

-Norfolk Southern did not tell Governor DeWine or the incident commander (East Palestine fire chief) that Oxyvinyls, the owner of the vinyl chloride train cars that was on scene in East Palestine, had recommended against doing a vent and burn of the 5 vinyl chloride train cars and that Oxyvinyls had told Norfolk Southern "there was no justification to do a vent and burn." This information was not relayed to the governor or fire chief in the discussions meant to get Governor DeWine and the fire chief's approval to do the vent and burn.

NTSB Chair: "They [Governor and fire chief] were not given full information [by Norfolk Southern] because no one was told Oxyvinyls was on-scene, they were left out of the room, the incident commander didn't even know they existed, neither did the governor, so they were provided incomplete information to make a decision."

-The temperatures for all five train cars—particularly the main VC tank car of concern—were going down at the time of the vent and burn. "Over the course of 22 hours, that tank car was cooling, not to mention the other four tank cars that were only between 64 and 69 degrees." 

-One of the train cars that was monitored showed an initial temperature of 135 degrees at 4pm on Sunday February 5th and then declined to 126 degrees at 9:30am on Monday February 6th.

NTSB chair: "That's correct Senator, it was stabilized well before the vent and burn, many hours before."

Sen. Vance: "So declining temperatures you would think, and stabilized temperatures, are consistent not with something that needs to be exploded but with something that can be dealt with in a slightly less catastrophic way...is it true that the chemical shipper Oxyvinyls concluded that the reported and stabilized tank car temperatures were too low for a runaway chemical reaction—meaning the sort of thing that can lead to an uncontrolled explosion?"

NTSB Chair: "That's correct, they [Oxyvinyls] had testified that polymerization was not occurring; in order for polymerization to occur—which was Norfolk Southern and their contractors' justification for the vent and burn—you would have to have rapidly increasing temperatures and some sort of infusion of oxygen. Neither of which things occurred."

-NTSB chair confirmed that Oxyvinyls testified that "there was no free radical agent or sufficient heat trajectory to justify Norfolk Southern contractors' assessment that a chemical reaction was occurring."

-NTSB chair confirmed that Norfolk Southern contractors "lacked scientific basis to support their conclusion that polymerization was occuring in the derailed VC tank cars."

In response to Homendy's testimony, Senator J.D. Vance praised the work of the NTSB on this investigation and said:

"This town very well may have been poisoned to facilitate the rapid movement of freight or at the very least it was poisoned for reasons that we can't identify—that should really concern every single person on this committee."

Questions:

1) Simply put, according to NTSB's investigation, Norfolk Southern disregarded expert subject matter advice, disregarded cooling temperatures of the tank cars, and withheld the expert of advice from Oxyvinyls against doing a vent and burn when making its recommendation to Governor DeWine and the East Palestine fire chief. You also have one of Ohio's Senator's publicly stating East Palestine and the surrounding areas of Ohio and PA may have been intentionally poisoned by a multi-billion dollar railroad company in order to re-open their rail lines and maximize profit. With the NTSB investigation completed and this information out there, will Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost be opening a criminal investigation into the East Palestine derailment and vent and burn looking into Norfolk Southern's actions as well as other entities including the federal and local Ohio EPA?

And, with respect, answering: "we are looking into it" will not suffice to the sick and struggling residents of East Palestine and Pennsylvania.

2) If you have already opened up a criminal investigation, what stage is the Ohio AG at in the probe? 

3) The information confirmed by the NTSB chair last week has been freely available since June 2023 (when an Oxyvinyls executive testified at an NTSB hearing and revealed the company had repeatedly advised Norfolk Southern against doing a vent and burn and that the train car temperatures were cooling). What steps did the Ohio AG take since that June 2023 hearing to look into this matter.

I appreciate your time and look forward to your timely response by the end of business today.

As of the publishing of this story, the Ohio Attorney General’s office has not responded to Status Coup and my subsequent follow-up email. BUT Ohio Governor DeWine, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office did respond…

1) Ohio Governor’s Office provided me with a statement they issued last week. Essentially, the Governor’s spokesperson repeated what the NTSB Chair confirmed during her exchange with Senator Vance.

Governor DeWine’s statement:

“NTSB Chair Homendy testified Wednesday that neither Governor DeWine nor incident command were ever presented with a scenario from experts that a controlled vent and release was unnecessary to prevent a catastrophic explosion. They were also not presented any scenario where, if officials did nothing, the train cars would not explode catastrophically. Governor DeWine spent hours with incident command and Norfolk Southern contractors on the day of the release and asked numerous questions to understand the facts. No one—not one single expert—opined that day about there being any other scenario occurring besides either a catastrophic explosion or a controlled release to prevent such an explosion.”

In response, I asked Governor DeWine’s press secretary: “Thanks for the statement. Doesn't answer my question. Given this new information and evidence, will the Governor be calling for a criminal investigation into Norfolk Southern?”

DeWine’s spokesperson responded: “I do not have additional comments beyond our statement.”

For the record:

• According to Ohio Capital Journal, Norfolk Southern has donated $29,000 to Governor DeWine’s campaigns for governor and inaugurations.

• According to the Sierra Club, Norfolk Southern and its PAC has donated $165,000 to DeWine over his political career.

• Norfolk Southern’s Ohio lobbying firm assisted in blocking railroad safety regulation

• Norfolk Southern’s Ohio lobbying firm orchestrated a deal between Norfolk Southern and a Cincinnati Ohio publicly owned railroad.

2) A spokesperson for Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who is labeled as as a populist progressive Senator in conservative Ohio, responded to me with a statement he issued last week:

“This is outrageous.  This explosion – which devasted so many – was unnecessary. The people of East Palestine are still living with the consequences of this toxic burn. This is more proof that Norfolk Southern put profits over safety & cannot be trusted,” said Brown.

In response, I asked Senator Brown’s Press Secretary: Thanks for the statement. Doesn't answer my question. Given this new information and evidence, will the Senator be calling for a criminal investigation into Norfolk Southern?

As of the publishing of this story, Status Coup has received no further response.

For the record:

• According to the Washington Free Beacon, Senator Brown has received $41,000 from Norfolk Southern and its lobbyists since 2004.

3) The Attorney General of Pennsylvania’s Office responded to me: “We have no comment to offer.”

Important context: shortly after the February 2023 East Palestine derailment and chemical detonation, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro directed his Attorney General, Michelle Henry, to open a criminal investigation into Norfolk Southern over the East Palestine derailment that also sickened Pennsylvania residents. My questions to Pennsylvania AG Henry’s office was asking if she has indeed opened that criminal investigation and, if so, where does it stand. I also asked, given the new evidence presented by the NTSB that Norfolk Southern hid vital information from Governor DeWine and Governor Shapiro, will the PA AG call for criminal charges? As shown, they gave Status Coup a no comment.

In response, I asked AG Henry’s office: To be clear, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania has no comment on the National Transportation Safety Board confirming that Norfolk Southern hid vital information from the Governor of Ohio, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and the incident commander (East Palestine fire chief) regarding the chemical experts and owner of the toxic vinyl chloride advising against detonating 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride over East Palestine and Western Pennsylvania?

In response, AG Henry’s office told me: “We have no comment for Status Coup in response to its questions.”

Status Coup has received no response from Ohio Senator Vance, Pennsylvania Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Office.

According to Ohio Capitol Journal, Senator Vance has not received money from Norfolk Southern but does have a connection: one of Norfolk’s current lobbyists is married to Vance’s former communications director.

In December 2023, nearly a year after the East Palestine derailment, Senator Bob Casey accepted $1,000 dollars from Denis Dwyer, a lobbyist for Norfolk Southern. A few days later, Casey announced $143 million in federal grant money going to expand and improve Pennsylvania Amtrak train lines owned by Norfolk Southern. In 2020, Norfolk Southern’s PAC donated $2,500 to Casey’s Keystone America PAC.

In March 2023, Senators Casey and Fetterman introduced the Railway Safety Act, which aimed to enhance safety regulations for trains carrying hazardous material. Senator Fetterman has not received money from Norfolk Southern.

As of my reporting, not one elected politician in Ohio or Pennsylvania—Governors, Senators, Congressman, or Attorney Generals—have called for criminal charges against Norfolk Southern or, at the least, a criminal investigation (aside from PA Governor Josh Shapiro, who did call for a criminal investigation in 2023).

Here are their numbers and emails. Whether you live in East Palestine or Pennsylvania or not, a corporation getting away with chemically nuking a town—and sickening its residents and those in the surrounding region—affects ALL OF US.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost:
(800) 282-0515
(740) 249-4378
(513) 852-3497
AGOCARES@OhioAGO.gov

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine:
Main Office: (614) 644-4357
Contact Form: https://governor.ohio.gov/contact

Ohio Senator J.D. Vance
D.C. Office: (202) 224-3353
Cleveland Office: (216) 539-7877
Columbus Office: (614) 369-4925
Toledo Office: (567) 304-3777
Middletown Office: (513) 318-1100
Contact Form: https://www.vance.senate.gov/contact/

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (up for reelection this year)
D.C. Office: (202) 224-2315
Cleveland Office: (216) 522-7272
Cincinnati Office: (513) 684-1021
Columbus Office: (614) 469-2083
Lorain Office: (440) 242-4100
Contact Form: https://www.brown.senate.gov/contact/email

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle A. Henry
Main Office: (717)-787-3391
Contact Form: https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/contact/
EnvironmentalCrimes@attorneygeneral.gov

Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (up for reelection this year)
D.C. Office: (202) 224-6324
Allentown Office: (610) 782-9470
Erie Office: (814) 240-5213
Harrisburg Office: (717) 231-7540
Philadelphia Office: (215) 405-9660
Pittsburgh Office: (412) 803-7370
Scranton Office: (570) 941-0930
Contact Form: https://www.casey.senate.gov/contact/share

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman
D.C. Office: (202) 224-4254
Philadelphia Office: (215) 241-1090
Pittsburgh Office: (412) 803-3501
Wilkes-Barre Office: (570) 820-4088
Erie Office: (814) 453-3010
Harrisburg Office: (717) 782-3951
Contact Form: https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/contact/