Other groups, including rail unions, have already been pointing to an Obama-era rule that would have required trains carrying “high hazardous materials” to install electronic braking systems to stop trains more quickly than conventional air brakes. They argue the brake requirements wouldn’t have stopped the derailment but could have mitigated its impacts.

The rule came after one of the deadliest train derailments, in 2013, when a train carrying crude oil dislodged from its tracks in the small town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people and engulfing much of the town in flames…

The rule was finalized in 2015.

The industry had been arguing that the price tag for rail companies to install ECP was too high and not economically justified. After the Government Accountability Office released a 2016 report that found fault in the agency’s cost-benefit analysis, the Trump administration repealed the brake requirement since the “expected benefits do not exceed the expected costs.”