FAA vacancy has a long road ahead
Presented by Moms Clean Air Force
With help from Alex Guillén
Quick Fix
— The timeline to replace Phil Washington looks long and possibly fraught. Meanwhile, the FAA has a full plate.
— The FRA suggested freight trains aren’t being built properly, highlighting patterns in recent derailments.
— The Ports of LA and Long Beach shut down last week due to a shortage of dockworkers and amid months of contract negotiations.
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Driving the Week
LOOKING FOR A LEADER: It’s a tough time to be without a confirmed FAA administrator — air traffic volumes are predicted to surge, there’s an uptick of near-misses on runways across the country, and Congress is in the middle of writing a new bill to reauthorize the agency. And finding a nominee to replace Phil Washington will not be a quick process, Alex reports.
— The FAA hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed leader in over a year. Acting Administrator Billy Nolen, who has taken on a role as the FAA’s public face amid the near misses, faces two forces working against him: the endorsement of White House foe Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the fact that multiple Democratic senators overseeing the FAA pick’s confirmation process advocated for someone with fewer ties to the aviation industry when propping up Washington. While Washington’s lack of aviation experience ultimately sank his nomination, Nolen has spent years in safety-related executive roles with American Airlines, Airlines for America, Qantas and WestJet after previously working as a pilot.
— Democrats still need to strike a balance within a tightly contested Commerce Committee where two of their own, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) did not publicly support the previous nominee. A Senate Democratic aide who spoke with Alex expressed frustration that the White House seemed to ignore the thin margins on the committee, where one dissenting Democrat can tank a nominee. Because many senators on the committee from both parties will insist on meeting personally with whoever the nominee is and the committee will need to do a deep dive on the eventual nominee’s background, aviation industry sources said it will be months, at a minimum, until a new nominee can get confirmed.
— The drawn-out timeline has major implications for the FAA funding bill, which lawmakers from both parties are aiming to wrap up by the end of the summer. Valery Miftakhov, CEO of ZeroAvia, which is developing hydrogen-powered aircraft, said not having a Senate-confirmed leader means “we cannot expect to see the FAA take anything but small steps and it will be difficult to set the strategic direction.”
Automobiles
PEDAL TO THE METAL: EPA this week is expected to roll out significant increases to tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks, the latest push in the Biden administration’s effort to accelerate the transition to zero-emissions vehicles. The White House on Friday finished its review of the rule setting greenhouse gas emissions limits starting with model year 2027 light-duty vehicles, Reg. 2060-AV49. The rule will also strengthen limits on conventional pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.
While there’s widespread rumor that Administrator Michael Regan will unveil the proposal on Wednesday in Detroit — it’s not yet clear whether any auto CEOs will be onstage with him — most details are still under wraps. The rule is designed to push electric vehicles to 67 percent of new sales in 2032 by requiring a fleetwide average stringency that would effectively require automakers to boost sales of EVs to comply, The New York Times reported on Saturday. That would be a major extension of Biden’s prior stated goal of 50 percent sales by 2030, and an order-of-magnitude more EV sales than are occurring nationwide right now.
This could be a legally risky gambit. Even if EPA got every automaker aligned behind the rule, Republican state attorneys general and the oil and biofuels industries whose products are being pushed out of the market are likely to mount a full-frontal attack in court. They’ve already accused a prior rule governing emissions for 2023-2026 vehicles of violating the “major questions” doctrine, which the Supreme Court used last year to restrict EPA’s climate authority over power plants. The Biden EPA’s tailpipe rules are pushing a fundamental change in the transportation sector that Congress never authorized, the agency’s critics argue.
On the other hand, something must be done about transportation-sector emissions if Biden wants to come anywhere near meeting his climate goals. Transportation is the top source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., responsible for 37 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and has held steady for years while the power sector’s emissions have declined. Light-duty vehicles make up 58 percent of those emissions, according to EPA figures.
USA, USA: American automakers are leading the pack so far in EV models that qualify for the Inflation Reduction Act’s $7,500 EV tax credit. Out of 91 EV models on the U.S. market, just five have been confirmed to qualify for the credit — all from American automakers, Tanya reports. General Motors, Ford and Tesla are ahead so far, as foreign automakers struggle to meet the IRA’s stringent new content sourcing rules for battery minerals and components.
— The list of qualifying models will keep changing. Manufacturers are racing to build their capacity for manufacturing in the United States and other eligible countries in order to qualify for the incentive, so some models will likely become eligible as time goes on. But others will lose eligibility as the domestic-content rules get stricter every year.
Rail
CHECK YOUR TRAINS: FRA issued a safety advisory Friday asking railroads to examine how they configure freight trains, including length and car makeup, saying it has noticed similarities in recent derailments that suggest some trains aren’t being built properly. FRA cited six examples from the last two years involving trains of 125 or more cars averaging 16,000 trailing tons, pointing to the Association of American Railroads’ own standards that say trains shouldn’t be more than 4,000 trailing tons on tracks like the ones those six trains were traveling on. Tanya has the details.
Maritime
LA SHUTDOWN: The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach shut down on Thursday evening and Friday due to a shortage of dockworkers, as the union representing port workers and the ports continue months of labor talks, Alex reports. The Pacific Maritime Association in a statement blamed the ILWU for taking “concerted action to withhold labor at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.” The ILWU has not publicly commented on the work stoppage.
— It’s not yet clear how serious the stoppage will be at two of the nation’s three busiest container ports, which together account for the largest share of the container market from East Asia. Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight at Flexport, a company that tracks shipping rates, said the shutdown so far is not as serious because Fridays are “generally the least productive days at the terminal.”
“Is this something to worry about? Yes and no,” Strang said in a LinkedIn post. “Yes, because labor talks are drawn out and should have concluded by now. No, because this was not a strike or lockout but was a minor tit-for-tat between the ILWU and the Terminals.”
IMPORTS ON THE UP: Import cargo volume at major U.S. container ports is projected to grow this summer while remaining below the record levels set during the pandemic, which saw ports overwhelmed and supply chains disrupted, according to the Global Port Tracker report released Friday by the National Retail Federation. U.S. ports covered in the report handled 1.5 million 20-foot containers in February, down 14.4 percent from January and 26.8 percent year over year. The projected volume aligns with typical pre-pandemic levels, according to NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold.
Transportation
HELP WANTED: The transportation sector saw a 5 percent unemployment rate last month, a 0.1 percentage point drop from March 2022 but 1.4 points above the overall U.S. unemployment rate for March 2023, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In addition, the leisure and hospitality sector added 72,000 jobs in March, which falls short of the average 95,000 jobs gained monthly over the past six months — a slowdown in job growth that U.S. Travel warned should signal concern for the upcoming summer travel season.
The Autobahn
— “America’s roads are more dangerous, as police pull over fewer drivers.” NPR.
— “Airline passengers could be in for a rougher ride, thanks to climate change.” NPR.
— “What happened when Uber’s CEO started driving for Uber.” The Wall Street Journal.
— “GM Cruise recalls 300 robotaxis after crash involving bus.” The Associated Press.
— “Cost rises for Potomac rail bridge that would eliminate East Coast bottleneck.” The Washington Post.
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