WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has yet to nominate someone to lead the federal agency that regulates the transport of hazardous materials, including the toxic chemicals that spilled following the fiery derailment of a Norfolk Southern Corp. train in Ohio this month.
The Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has been without an administrator since Biden took office in January 2021. That vacancy has come into focus as the White House tries to quell a political crisis over its response to the Feb. 3 crash that resulted in the release of a soup of toxic chemicals.
“You’ve got no one officially nominated in charge and I think that’s a problem,” said Brigham McCown, who led the agency during the George W. Bush administration. “If there was a train accident, I would have been on site in 24 hours figuring out what was going on and how to fix it. That’s how you reassure the public.”
