| | | | |  | | By Alex Daugherty | Presented by the National Association of Chemical Distributors | With help from Tanya Snyder, Oriana Pawlyk, Alex Guillén and Eleanor Mueller
| | | — The House will vote to penalize oil companies caught price gouging, but Republicans oppose the bill and some Democrats are skeptical that it would actually lead to lower gas prices. — DOT announces billions in funding to make streets safer as the NHTSA hints at an alarming increase in traffic fatalities. — GOP-led states begin another fight against California's EPA waiver that allows the state to impose more-stringent greenhouse gas standards for cars. IT'S MONDAY: You're reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. Send tips, pitches, feedback and song lyrics to us at adaugherty@politico.com, tsnyder@politico.com and opawlyk@politico.com. You can also find us on Twitter:@alextdaugherty, @TSnyderDC and@Oriana0214. "And I see another man in your eyes/Yes, and you're old enough to know you can't live lies/Yes, and so I'm telling you just exactly what to do/'Cause you can't have two tastes of advice/Pay the price."
| | | | A message from the National Association of Chemical Distributors: Record high shipping rates, anticompetitive practices and arbitrary decision-making from ocean shipping companies are causing delays and shortages of imported essentials, impacting the ability of farmers and others to export American products to the rest of the world and driving up costs for U.S. consumers. Congress can help alleviate this crisis by passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act. Get the facts. #ChemicalsCantWait | | | | | | SHOW VOTE: The nationwide average price for a gallon of gas hit another all-time high on Sunday, at $4.47, but the House and Senate are set for inaction. Democratic leadership's preferred policy response to record-high gas prices is to vote on a bill, H.R. 7688 (117) , that would give the Federal Trade Commission the power to penalize oil companies if the government can prove they are inflating the price of gasoline. The bill is on the House agenda this week, but it has no chance of getting GOP support. The idea to use legislation to punish price gouging was also called "nonsense" by former President Barack Obama's chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. And it didn't exactly get a ringing endorsement from DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday. "I'm not familiar with all of the details of that legislation," Buttigieg said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "But what I can tell you from an administration perspective is that there is guidance going out to crack down on price gouging where we see it." TO WHAT END? The bill is likely to pass the Democratic-controlled House, but is probably going nowhere in the Senate without Republican support. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised similar legislation out of the Senate Commerce Committee, but any bill that would give the president more power to declare an "energy emergency" or expand the FTC's power to investigate and penalize price gouging (which is extremely hard to prove) is unlikely to win GOP votes. The legislative effort is in lieu of a federal gas tax holiday, an idea pushed by a few Democrats in purple states but one that is also going nowhere after House Speaker Nancy Pelosiand Republicans have come out against it.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories.
| | | BILLIONS COMING: DOT is announcing a new funding program that provides $1 billion per year for the next five years for projects that aim to improve road safety. The Safe Streets for All competitive grant program , which was part of the infrastructure law, allows cities, towns, planning organizations and tribal governments to apply for money that can be used for projects like widening shoulders, protecting bike lanes or collecting better traffic data. The competitive grants provide 80 percent of the funding for winning projects, and no more than 15 percent of funds can be awarded to a single state per year. BAD NEWS COMING: The funding announcement comes as NHTSA is expected to release preliminary traffic fatality estimates for the full year of 2021 this coming week. "What I can tell you is the projected increases are alarming and that action is needed now," NHTSA chief Steven Cliff said last week at an event for the agency's seat belt safety campaign. He noted that the agency is projecting that the numbers of unbelted vehicle occupants rose in 2021. Roadway deaths have been spiking since the start of the pandemic. People drove less, but those still on the road drove more recklessly, NHTSA said. Speeding and driving while intoxicated and while distracted soared. The death rate per 100 million miles went up by 24 percent between the first nine months of 2019 and the first nine months of 2021, the last period for which statistics have been published. EQUITY MAKES A COMEBACK: DOT will announce today the launch of the new Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity and put out a call for members. The advisory committee was created under the Obama administration to advise on equity issues related to transportation and how it intersects with health, housing and environmental justice. The Trump administration dissolved it.
| | | RED STATES OPEN SECOND FRONT AGAINST CALIFORNIA WAIVERS: A group of 17 red states on Friday challenged EPA's reinstatement of California's waiver allowing the state to enforce more-stringent greenhouse gas standards through model year 2025 vehicles. This fresh legal attack is the same as that raised by the states last month in lingering litigation of the Trump EPA's revocation of California's waiver — that the Clean Air Act's 50-year-old waiver program for California is entirely unconstitutional, whether it's used for greenhouse gases or conventional pollutants, because it favors one state. "The Act simply leaves California with a slice of its sovereign authority that Congress withdraws from every other state," West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said. The lawsuit is led by Ohio and joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | HIRING FRENZY? In response to ongoing concerns from the Surface Transportation Board and labor unions, freight railroads say they are staffing up. BNSF says it is on track to hire nearly 1,800 "Train, Yard and Engine" employees in 2022, while Union Pacific says it has already met nearly half of its 2022 goal to hire 1,400 new train crew members. Norfolk Southern says it has more than 850 active conductor trainees "and more on the way"; CSX says it is "pursuing every reasonable option to increase train-and-engine employee hiring and retention." Eleanor Mueller has more here.
| | | | A message from the National Association of Chemical Distributors:   | | | | | | AIRPORTS ARE HOT: House Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio(D-Ore.) and Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) will hold a hearing on Tuesday on how airports can address climate change and its effects. ALABAMA SPACEPORT: The FAA on Friday issued a license to the Huntsville-Madison Airport Authority to operate the Huntsville International Airport as a commercial space reentry site. The license permits the airport to offer its site for Sierra Space Dream Chaser vehicles returning to Earth from future NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station. The Reentry Site Operator License is valid for five years.
| | | — "Denver e-bike rebates are flying off the shelf. Here's the climate change connection." The Colorado Sun. — "TSA said screening of breastfeeding mom did not meet 'standards.'" The Washington Post. — "United to 'gradually' return PW4000-powered 777s to service from 26 May." Flightglobal. — "FAA finds Boeing 787 certification documents incomplete — sources." Reuters. — "'There's no silver bullet': Train officials discuss South Florida rail safety tactics." Miami Herald. — "Small plane crashes and burns at Haulover bridge in Miami area." Miami Herald. — "Business travel resumes, though not at its former pace." The New York Times. — "Rivian sold Wall Street on an electric SUV. Then reality hit." The Washington Post.
| | | | A message from the National Association of Chemical Distributors: NACD and its over 400 member and Affiliate companies are vital to the chemical supply chain, providing products necessary for water treatment, food preservation, agricultural processes, pharmaceutical and vaccine production, and more to over 750,000 end users.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act will help businesses small and large recover from the economic impact of COVID-19, better navigate rising inflation, and keep essential products in the marketplace, while reducing the strain on Americans' wallets.
OSRA is just a few steps away from becoming law. We thank Congress for their leadership on this issue and urge them to quickly reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill. Only then can we move forward with the ocean shipping reform that is necessary for our nation's economic and national security.
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