Transportation

Score one for California in auto emissions battle


With help from Tanya Snyder

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California’s emissions deal with four automakers waives off the Trump administration’s plans to roll back Obama-era standards.

Southwest Airlines is feeling the pain from the ongoing grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, canceling flights through January and shutting down operations at an airport.

It’s looking more and more likely that NTSB head Robert Sumwalt might have to temporarily give up his position as chairman, with the Senate facing a tight timeline and packed schedule.

HAPPY FRIDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Get in touch with tips, feedback and song lyric suggestions at smintz@politico.com or @samjmintz.

“I walk this empty street / On the boulevard of broken dreams / Where the city sleeps / And I’m the only one, and I walk alone.”

LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about roads, rails, rivers and runways?

CALIFORNIA AND CARMAKERS TEAM UP AGAINST TRUMP: California struck a deal with four major automakers to continue reducing their emissions more aggressively than the Trump administration’s plans to freeze federal standards, Pro Energy’s Alex Guillen reports. The four companies — Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and BMW North America — represent nearly a third of U.S. car sales.

Under the terms of the agreement, the carmakers will reduce their fleetwide emissions by 3.7 percent per year for model years 2022 to 2026. Alex writes that it’s not yet clear whether the voluntary agreement would be “affected by the Trump administration’s plan to take away California’s special authority to regulate under the Clean Air Act.”

With this deal, California is “effectively building a state-level and private-sector resistance to the Trump administration’s plan,” Alex writes in this story with POLITICO California’s Debra Kahn.

The administration’s response: The EPA dismissed the move, calling it a “PR stunt that does nothing to further the one national standard that will provide certainty and relief for American consumers,”

THE VIEW OF AVS FROM OUTSIDE DOT: Derek Kan, who until recently was a senior official at DOT, dished on what he thinks policymakers are getting wrong about autonomous vehicles. First, predictions on timing have been overly optimistic. And the metrics used to evaluate success have relied too much on vehicle miles tested and the number of disengagements. Pros can read more from our Tanya Snyder, including what Kan thinks DOT has gotten right.

UPS JOINS AV WORKFORCE GROUP: UPS has joined the Partnership for Transportation Innovation and Opportunity, a coalition with the mission of advancing AV technology “in ways that improve the quality of life and economic opportunity for all Americans.” The other members of the alliance, which was launched a little more than a year ago, include American Trucking Associations, Daimler, FedEx, Ford, Lyft, Toyota, Uber and Waymo.

SWELL FOR ELWELL: The House passed a bill on Thursday that will allow Dan Elwell to stay on at FAA as deputy administrator once Steve Dickson is sworn in as chief. As our Brianna Gurciullo reports, the legislation was necessary because both are former military officers. The Senate passed the waiver earlier this week.

SOUTHWEST HIT HARD BY 737 MAX GROUNDING: Southwest Airlines’ earnings report released Thursday brought bad news — changes the company is being forced to make due to the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX. As our Brianna Gurciullo reports, Southwest, which has the largest fleet of MAX aircraft of any U.S. airline, is taking the plane out of its schedule through early January 2020. Other airlines have canceled MAX flights through November. Southwest will also cease operations at Newark Liberty International Airport in November, citing sinking financial results there and the need to “mitigate damages and optimize our aircraft.”

CLOCK TICKING ON SUMWALT RENOMINATION: NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, who could be forced to step down temporarily due to a delayed White House nomination, might not get any help from a Senate counting down the days to the August recess. Your MT host on Thursday talked to Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who said it would be “very hard” for Sumwalt to get reconfirmed in the next week. “I don’t know of any controversy around him,” Wicker told POLITICO. “But I think the leader has a couple of hands full of judges. I don’t know that he’s on the list.” If he’s not reconfirmed before Aug. 8, Sumwalt will have to hand over chairman duties to vice chair Bruce Landsberg in an acting capacity until the Senate returns.

CHIP IN CHARGE: DOT has named a new chair of the FAA NextGen Advisory Committee, which gives recommendations on integrating new technology into the Air Traffic Management System. As head of the committee, Russell “Chip” Childs, CEO of the regional airline SkyWest, will “lead discussions on how to manage mixed equipage in aircraft communication, navigation and surveillance avionics to achieve success in the Northeast Corridor,” among other objectives, according to DOT.

HIGH(ER) SPEED RAIL IN THE NORTHEAST: Amtrak is launching new nonstop service between Washington, D.C., and New York City, a precursor to the 2021 debut of new Acela trains, which are currently being assembled in New York. The nonstop service will start on Sept. 23 and run on weekdays, with one trip each way. The approximate trip time is 2 hours and 35 minutes. As Yonah Freemark, a Ph.D. candidate in city planning at MIT, noted on Twitter, that’s about 15 minutes faster than the current fastest service: “not bad, but not a game changer, either.”

IN OTHER CALIFORNIA NEWS: The California High Speed Rail Authority announced on Thursday that the state received authority from the FRA to take on “environmental review responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other federal environmental laws.” According to the state agency, that gives it the ability to move forward with environmental reviews for the first phase of the project that will connect San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Reminder: The FRA has already moved to take away one grant from California, and threatened to claw back more. But high speed rail authority head Brian Kelly said in a statement that Thursday’s announcement could herald a more productive relationship. “We’ve lost valuable time waiting with the FRA’s disengagement, so I am very thankful for this action, and I am hopeful this step is the beginning of a more collaborative and cooperative relationship prospectively,” Kelly said.

SHIPPERS DUMP ON PSR: At a House Transportation Committee roundtable Thursday, rail shippers complained with one voice about reduced service and increased fees, as the majority of Class I railroads have switched to precision scheduled railroading, which, in the words of Ross Corthell, vice president for transportation at the Packaging Corporation of America, is “anything but precise at origin and destination.” He said shippers are frustrated with the “power imbalance” with the Class I railroads, especially as consolidation has reduced competition to the point that an estimated 78 percent of freight rail stations are captive to a single major railroad.

‘The grinch that stole Christmas’: That was T&I Chairman Peter DeFazio’s assessment, when he said the railroads’ push to operate at a leaner capacity meant “we couldn’t get flat cars in Oregon for our Christmas trees.” There doesn’t appear to be a congressional fix on the horizon but members of the Surface Transportation Board were present at the hearing to listen to the complaints.

Dana Schulze has been named director of NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, the agency announced Thursday. She has been at NTSB since 2002, deputy director of the aviation office since 2012 and has been acting director since November 2018.

— “Maryland to cut cash on two toll bridges, stepping up effort toward automated tolling system.” The Washington Post.

— “Ford’s scooter company launches aggressive expansion plan and next-gen scooter.” The Verge.

— “No timeline for Boeing 737 MAX return to service: FAA official.” Reuters.

— “Elon Musk’s Boring Co. raises $120 million in first outside investment.” Bloomberg.

— “De Blasio administration sues American Airlines, charging sick day retaliation.” POLITICO New York.

DOT appropriations run out in 66 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,527 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 435 days.





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