Oh puuleeese!

What this law mostly does is to merely require all over again, what is already required by numerous federal regulations. Also numerous state laws in all fifty states, already mandate preparations specific to all the various kinds of incidents that could occur in a given area. There also already are regular drills by emergency responders in how to handle them (My son is such a responder, and I am on more that one such local disaster preparation committee).

Not one scrap of this law breaks new ground, except for the silly notion that each individual shipment must be alarmed to local authorities. But more to the point, even without this bill, local communities already know what those possible local disaster types are, and how to deal with them.

They already get it! But what they do not need is to be snowed in by "blow by blow" data in order to be properly prepared to deal with all contingencies. All that is needed is for the railroad to report unusual occurrences, along with lading data related to the incident train, all of which is already mandated by the CFR - and by existing state laws everywhere. It has been that way for decades.

The real, and only, purpose of this new act of the legislature is to cause those politicians doing it, to feel good about themselves, which they apparently wouldn't otherwise; but always at the needless expense of others. Just another example of assuaging useless "Liberal Guilt", with needless new laws. But then again, its only the politically "savvy" that even feel this guilt in the first place - the rest of us trogglites find it a waste of time. Hence these things always become a partisan ideological issue, rather than a common sense issue - Too Bad politicians just can't be more honest with themselves.

If it ain't broke - DON'T fix it!