East Palestine, OH – In response to former President Trump’s political stunt in East Palestine, OH today, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) issued the following statement from Vice President of Government Affairs Sara Chieffo: 

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for Trump to feign concern for the community of East Palestine after years of openly mocking and rolling back environmental safeguards. As president, Trump rolled back rail safety protections, including withdrawing a proposal that would have required faster brakes on some trains carrying highly flammable materials, cut funding to the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, and dismantled nearly 100 environmental protections. Trump bent over backwards to cater to corporate polluters at every turn and put East Palestine and other communities directly in harm’s way. 

“If Trump, Sen. Vance, Rep. Johnson, and other extreme MAGA Republicans were truly serious about preventing these kinds of disasters, they wouldn’t be pushing to weaken health and safety protections and instead would be supporting stronger environmental regulations including the Biden administration’s proposed chemical safety rule and making sure that the corporate polluters responsible for this tragedy are fully held accountable.”

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