With help from Tanya Snyder, Oriana Pawlyk and Alex Guillén
— Delta wants a new no-fly list for unruly or violent passengers.
— Transit ridership remains down, and it could be harder for new projects to get infrastructure law funding if riders still won’t come back.
— Large infrastructure projects funded by the new law must enter into a collective bargaining agreement with at least one union, according to a new executive order.
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NO-FLY ZONE: The CEO of Delta Air Lines is asking the Justice Department to create a federal list of passengers convicted of interfering with or assaulting air crew, Oriana reports. Ed Bastian wrote Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, saying a national list would serve “as a strong symbol of the consequences” to help thwart unruly cabin behavior, which has not shown any signs of stopping as travel bookings tick up.
CALL IN THE FEDS: Delta, which has an internal no-fly list of some 1,900 people, is the first airline to make the request, but union leaders and some lawmakers have repeatedly pressed for the creation of a banned passenger database to be shared among carriers. The FAA closed out 2021 with5,981 reports of unruly passengers, 4,290 of which were mask-related incidents; the agency initiated about 1,100 investigations and took action in 350 cases. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hasn’t taken a firm position, but said last year a federal no-fly program “should be on the table.”
Laser danger: The number of laser strikes against aircraft — a serious safety threat — topped all previous records in 2021. The Federal Aviation Administration received 9,723 reports from pilots last year, a 41 percent increase over 2020. Many types of high-powered lasers can incapacitate pilots. Pilots have reported 244 injuries since the FAA began recording data on laser strikes in 2010.
NEUTRAL CARBON MOTEL: The U.S. and EU have signed a light-on-specifics agreement to make the aviation sector carbon neutral by 2050, Mari Eccles reports. The Toulouse Declaration signatories agreed to improve aircraft technology, air traffic management and use more sustainable fuel, with the aim of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Airlines for Europe, a lobby group, called the Toulouse Declaration a “breakthrough,” adding that it could help to force through stronger global long-term goals at the September meeting of the U.N’s International Civil Aviation Organization.
CUT FLIGHTS PLEASE: Environmental groups were hoping that the industry would instead move to cut emissions by reducing flights — which isn’t part of the agreement.
“Any outcome of this summit that ignores the need to reduce the number of flights and start cutting emissions immediately won’t be worth the paper it’s written on,” Greenpeace spokesperson Herwig Schuster said ahead of the discussions. “Promises of green fuels and zero-emission planes, or fiddling the figures with dodgy offsets, are nothing but delay tactics.”
GAS EM’ UP: A coalition of aviation groups called for the EPA to provide for more opportunities for the development of sustainable aviation fuel as the agency updates the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. The Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, a group composed of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the Helicopter Association International, the National Air Transportation Association and the National Business Aviation Association said changes to the RFS would help the Biden administration reach its goal of bringing 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel to market by 2030.
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USPS CLAPS BACK ON EVs: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over the weekend fired back at the White House and EPA over their criticisms last week about the Postal Service’s plans to purchase mostly gasoline-powered vehicles instead of battery-powered electric vehicles. DeJoy, a Trump appointee, argued in a press release that comparisons to private-sector competitors’ decision to ram up EV deployment “are not relevant in view of our perilous financial condition and universal service mission.”
If Democrats want more EVs, DeJoy wrote, there’s only one way to get them: “Congress is well aware of the additional resources that would be required if Congress would prefer the Postal Service to accelerate the electrification of our delivery vehicle fleet as a matter of public policy.” The Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376), which passed the House in November, contained $6 billion for USPS electrification, including almost $2.6 billion for EV purchases and $3.4 billion for charging infrastructure. USPS previously said that funding would allow it to go all-electric by 2028. But of course, that bill’s future in the Senate is hazy.
CAN’T SPEND IT: Billions in federal cash will soon be flowing to transit agencies, which have for decades clamored for greater investment — but now that the infrastructure law has opened the funding floodgates, transit agencies whose ridership remains decimated by Covid-19 may have a tough time spending it, Tanya reports.
RIDERS ARE GONE: The new law increases transit funding by 40 percent — a fire hose of new money for everything from new rail cars to greater transit access for people with disabilities to rural transit. But millions of people stopped riding transit in the earliest days of the pandemic, and many have yet to return, whether out of fear of Covid transmission or because their commuting patterns have changed. While air travel is now just 11 percent below pre-pandemic levels and Amtrak is back to 70 percent of its prior ridership, transit is still limping along, with ridership at about 54 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
“It’s going to be hard for anybody to justify new service right now, given the ridership realities that everybody’s looking at over the last two years,” said Scott Bogren, executive director of the Community Transportation Association of America, a coalition of small transit and paratransit operators.
STILL STRUGGLING: The motorcoach industry is calling for another $6 billion in Covid relief aid. Of all modes of transportation, the intercity bus industry has been the slowest to bounce back, posting a 62 percent loss of business in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report by the American Bus Association.
Not enough: Congress gave $2 billion in December 2020 to the motorcoach, school bus and passenger vessel industries combined, after overlooking them in previous rounds of aid. That amount was whittled down from the $10 billion — just for intercity buses — that a bipartisan team of senators had originally proposed. “These industries need $6 billion more to bridge losses until recovery,” ABA said.
BIDEN ORDER BOOSTS UNIONS: President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday that would require large projects funded by the infrastructure law to use project labor agreements — pre-contract commitments by employers to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with at least one union, Eleanor Mueller reports. The executive order would require contractors on federally funded construction projects costing more than $35 million to agree to work with at least one union.
The executive order stands to affect $262 billion in federal contracting funds and nearly 200,000 workers on federal contracts, according to the administration’s analysis of fiscal 2021 spending.
— “Companies are racing to make self-driving cars. But why?” Washington Post.
— “The Mile High Club, complete with membership cards.” New York Times.
— “Where is there more lithium to power cars and phones? Beneath a California lake.” Wall Street Journal.
— “Microtransit programs promise on-demand transportation for all.” Bloomberg.
— “FAA Reaches One Million Airspace Authorization for Drone Pilots.” FAA.
