Transportation News for August 4, 2015

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  • on August 4, 2015
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Transportation News for August 4, 2015
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POLITICO Morning Transportation for 8/4/2015

By JENNIFER SCHOLTES 

DOCKET CLOSED. TIME TO START DELIBERATING OVER OPEN SKIES: The window of opportunity for the public to weigh in on the Open Skies debate shut at midnight last night. So now some government contractors will likely spend their days sifting through the input, writing up a report that gets at the gist of the concerns raised in those thousands of entries. The feedback is unlikely to enlighten Obama administration officials on some angle they haven’t yet considered. But the closing of the docket is a reminder that the heat is on for them to decide whether they’re going to reopen Open Skies negotiations with Gulf countries or let it be.

In the last hours before the public input period closed, groups arguing on both sides of the debate made a final push to log their stances: http://politico.pro/1Hnhubx. FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Atlas Air Worldwide even announced the creation of a new coalition — called the U.S. Airlines for Open Skies — to fight efforts to reopen the negotiations. The companies argue that claims of improper government subsidies to Persian Gulf airlines are unfounded and that freezing Open Skies privileges while renegotiating the agreements would surely hurt companies that do business in the region.
‘Meaningless coalition’: Those on the other side of the debate were quick to bat back. “This is a meaningless coalition without a cause,” Jill Zuckman, chief spokeswoman for the Partnership for Open and Fair Skies, said in a statement Monday. “The only risk to our Open Skies agreements is the Gulf carriers themselves and their massive, market-distorting government subsidies. Of the 117 Open Skies agreements with the United States, 115 are working beautifully.”

Check out the letter the coalition sent Monday to the departments of Commerce, Justice and Transportation: http://politico.pro/1SF9O03. And more from Pro on how the group wants it to be known that the fight isn’t just between U.S. carriers and Gulf airlines: http://politico.pro/1M1QxAs.

IT’S TUESDAY: Good morning and thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes, automobiles and ports.

Reach out: jscholtes@politico.com or @jascholtes.

“If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.” http://bit.ly/1aJ8RiF

WHILE THE HOUSE IS AWAY, SENATORS COMPLAIN: Of course, since House lawmakers have already left town, their Senate counterparts can’t help but get their digs in while they’re still confined to the capital this week. Taking to the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Sen. Jon Tester railed against the lower chamber for insisting on passing a three-month transportation extension last week so lawmakers could leave for August recess and hold off on debating a multiyear funding plan until their return. “Once again, this 114th Congress is proving its priorities are completely misguided,” Tester said. “By skipping town, the House forced another short extension, delaying long-term investments and denying states and businesses long-term certainty.”

NO, SILLY. SHOW US YOUR INFRA-WEAR: DOT wants to see your potholes, your moldy Metro seat, your “expect delays” signs. Making a social media push to highlight ailing infrastructure in light of Congress’ failure to enact a multiyear transportation funding bill, the department is calling on Americans to “show us what you would fix if we had a long-term surface transportation law. And remember to tag @USDOT and use the #ShowUsYourInfraWear hashtag.” Check it: http://1.usa.gov/1UjQSBy.

ANOTHER OCTOBER SHUTDOWN AHEAD?: When lawmakers return from August recess, the end of the fiscal year will loom just three workweeks away. And the battle senators are fighting on the floor this week — whether to defund Planned Parenthood — could easily be the factor that causes another government shutdown, forcing DOT and every other federal department to furlough a large swath of their workforces. POLITICO’s Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan report that “the issue is not going away, with the anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress expected to continue releasing more controversial and impolitic Planned Parenthood videos in the coming months. … The right flank of the GOP says it will refuse to vote for a spending bill that funds Planned Parenthood, while Democrats say they won’t vote for a funding bill that strips out the money. If those lines continue hardening, a government shutdown fight may be unavoidable.” More from Pro: http://politico.pro/1DoYnma.

HITCHBOT HIJACKS TRANSPORTATION COVERAGE: Whether it’s a conversation about the cruelty of Americans or a debate about what constitutes a robot, HitchBOT is clearly the biggest story in the transportation world this week, rivaling social media mentions of MH370 news. In their most official TV-broadcaster voices, anchors for all the major cable stations reported Monday on the hitchhiking robot’s demise in Philadelphia and the end to what NBC News called “the grand social experiment”: http://nbcnews.to/1VV9TvT. Amidst an outpouring of affection for the Canadian-born machine, Albert Burneko delivered a more pessimistic perspective, writing for The Concourse that HitchBOT, “for all practical purposes, was a garbage can with an iPhone in it. It could not walk or stand or fire lasers or open a can of beans. By what standard was this piece of useless shit a ‘robot’ in the first place? The answer: a shabby standard. A Canadian one.” http://bit.ly/1IUK3V6.

If you’re more of a fan than Burneko, you can follow @hitchBOT on Twitter or check out his blog: http://bit.ly/1IeWOTI.

GM CLOSES OUT AT LEAST $124 MILLION IN COMPENSATION FUND SETTLEMENTS: The man overseeing GM’s compensation fund for deaths from faulty ignition switches plans to soon review his staff’s determination that 124 fatalities are eligible for at least $1 million payouts, out of the more than 4,300 claims reviewed, The Detroit Free Press reports: http://on.freep.com/1IV1jcR. While the settlements will be at least $1 million each, they “could be larger based on certain demographic facts as the age of the person killed, his or her profession and salary and whether they were a parent,” according to the paper.

FRANCE’S INSISTENCE ON LEADING MH370 PROBE COMPLICATES INVESTIGATION: While there were no major breakthroughs in the MH370 search in the last 24 hours, the investigation advanced in that France asserted its role as the leader in analyzing the plane part found off the island of Réunion last week. The Wall Street Journal reports (http://on.wsj.com/1JJlc5n) that “safety experts watching the process from the outside worry the French moves — including the appointment of still another independent expert — could further complicate the search. These experts said the result could muddle jurisdictional lines, and in a worst-case scenario, potentially create friction with the larger investigation. Efforts to ascertain what happened to Flight 370 have already been hobbled at times by the multinational nature of the probe, which slowed the process and sometimes sent conflicting public messages.”

THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ):

— Ride-hailing service Didi Kuaidi to get backing from China investment corp. The Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/1Ijggjm

— After the killing of Cecil the lion, Delta Air Lines says it won’t ship hunting trophies. LA Times: http://lat.ms/1ICshiR

— From car-jacking to car-hacking: How vehicles became targets for cybercriminals. Bloomberg Business: http://bloom.bg/1Igcnhj

— The nation’s worst and most dangerous roads, according to Google. The Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1P03lHH

— Elon Musk: Tesla Model S autopilot will learn from other cars. AutoBlog: http://aol.it/1JJmkpL

THE COUNTDOWN: Highway and transit policy expires in 87 days. DOT appropriations run out and the FAA reauthorization expires in 59 days. The 2016 presidential election is in 465 days.

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