The Chicago Tribune on how we can ensure a rail disaster doesn’t happen elsewhere:

Man-made disasters come with an inevitable question. What preventable mistakes, what selfish neglect or lack of oversight, helped set the table for this catastrophe?

That’s certainly the case with the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in eastern Ohio that turned the small town of East Palestine into a knot of dread.

The Feb. 3 derailment ignited a fire that sent massive plumes of smoke into the air. Residents were forced to evacuate, and later authorities channeled hazardous chemicals from the tankers to a trench, where the toxic fumes were burned off into the air in a controlled release.

Residents of East Palestine are trying to get back to normal, while at the same time worrying about long-term fallout. They’re wondering whether their drinking water is safe, or whether the area’s soil and waterways have been permanently contaminated.

A separate follow-up question is worth asking. Could such a devastating disaster happen elsewhere?

The short answer is yes, though what’s maddening is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Illinois is uniquely vulnerable in part because of the sheer volume of freight rail traffic that moves through the state every day, particularly through the Chicago region. Chicago is the nation’s preeminent rail hub, with as many as 1,300 freight and passenger trains moving through the city each day. One out of every four freight trains in America passes through Chicago.

That volume could expand with the proposed merger of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads, which would create the only railroad linking Canada, Mexico and the U.S. mayors of several northwest suburbs potentially affected by the merger say the deal would ratchet up freight rail traffic by 300% on Metra’s Milwaukee West line.

The amount of hazardous materials transported via rail Illinois is considerable — in 2019, nearly 10 million tons of hazardous materials were moved on Illinois rail lines. Notably, the Norfolk Southern freight train carrying vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials that derailed in eastern Ohio began its journey in downstate Madison.

How often do derailments involving toxic chemicals occur? More often than you’d think. The Hill, a media company that focuses on Washington politics, recently analyzed Federal Railroad Administration data and reported that 106 derailments involving hazardous materials have occurred on U.S. rail tracks since 2015. Last year, the railway agency documented 10 derailments involving hazardous materials across the country.

The risk is real, which would suggest a glaring need to maximize safeguards for the transport of toxic chemicals via rail, as well as the need for the rail industry to embrace and implement those safeguards. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

For years, railroad industry leaders have lobbied to stymie regulations aimed at improving freight train safety, particularly tougher rules on the rail shipment of hazardous materials. According to Bloomberg, one federal proposal that the rail industry fought was the use of electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems that would bring freight trains to a quick, safe stop by applying brakes across the span of the train, rather than each car individually.

Despite rail industry lobbying, the Obama administration enacted the brake mandates in 2015. When Donald Trump took over the White House, railroad industry leaders renewed their opposition to the new brake rules, and Trump later rescinded the brake mandates. The rail industry also persuaded the federal government to delay until 2029 the phase-in of safer tank cars for hazardous materials transport, a change from the original 2025 phase-in date.

The last thing this country’s economy needs is overregulation. But what the railroad industry has been resisting through the years isn’t overregulation, it’s common sense rule-making that safeguards communities along rail lines, rail workers, and the industry as a whole. The alternative is a status quo in which another hazardous materials derailment devastates a community, and railroad executives find themselves again having to react to a horrific disaster and defend their actions.

No community in the U.S. — no community in the Chicago area or the rest of Illinois — should have to endure what East Palestine has endured.

No one is asking the railroad industry to acquiesce to burdensome rules with dubious potential for enhancing safety. But smart, well-researched regulation that significantly safeguards the movement by rail of toxic chemicals across the country is something rail companies should embrace, rather than resist.

The Republican on how the Constitution always trumps group feeling:

What sort of a person wouldn’t want to see our nation’s president move to erase vast swaths of student loan debt, unburdening a great number of people who have been struggling to get on with their lives because of the difficulties caused by their loans?

A hidebound conservative who is completely heartless and uncaring.

That’s one answer.

But there are others. Here’s one: President Joe Biden, who repeatedly said he lacked the authority to make such a move on his own. And another: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is no one’s idea of a conservative. She, too, argued that the president couldn’t simply act on his own, without congressional authorization.

On Tuesday, it seemed that there are likely some others who’ll be happy to board that train: a good many members of the U.S. Supreme Court, who appeared quite skeptical during oral arguments in a case concerning the president’s decision to erase the loans of some 40 million Americans.

Some, of course, will be quick to suggest that the current Supreme Court, with conservatives outnumbering the liberals, 6-3, would not be likely to care much about the travails of those burdened with student loans. But the case is ultimately about executive overreach and the separation of powers that stands at the heart of our government.

Think of it like this: If Biden, on his own, can sign such a sweeping executive order, what would stop some future chief executive — a President Ron DeSantis, say — from deciding to act unilaterally on one thing or another?

One might rationally argue that nothing would stop him. Sure, he’d perhaps first need to declare a national emergency, but that’s gotten pretty easy to do in our era.

We are a nation of laws, with the legislative and executive branches of the federal government having circumscribed powers. Presidents from both political parties have long sought to flex their muscles, sometimes acting as though the Congress is merely an afterthought.

It’s long past time for a rebalancing. Let the legislature legislate — as it is supposed to. And let the president stop acting so much like a king.

If the Supremes slap down Biden’s overreach on student loans, there’ll be lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the progressive set.

They would do well to understand that the question isn’t about loans, but the Constitution.