News: Harris talks economy but not transportation

Monday, August 19, 2024

Harris talks economy but not transportation — yet

Aug 19, 2024

QUICK FIX

— Kamala Harris rolled out major economic policy proposals but didn’t detail how she would address transportation issues.

— A former aide filed suit against the office of Rep. Troy Nehls, House T&I’s rail subcommittee chair. He alleges a pattern of homophobic comments.

— DOT is pushing for more connected vehicles tech in a bid to reduce road deaths. We explain what officials aim to do by 2036.

IT’S MONDAY: You’re reading Morning Transportation, your Washington policy guide to everything that moves. We’re glad you’re here. Send tips, feedback and song lyrics to Sam at sogozalek@politico.com, Chris at cmarquette@politico.com and Oriana at opawlyk@politico.com and follow us at @SamOgozalek, @ChrisMarquette and @oriana0214.

“Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Macon/ Loretta's singing on the radio/ Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon/ Car wheels on a gravel road.”

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Driving the day

HARRIS TALKS ECONOMY: In her first major speech on the economy in her newfound 2024 bid, Vice President Kamala Harris focused on lowering the cost of living by making housing more affordable and taking action against large food companies that try to exploit crises by jacking up prices.

She didn’t reveal her transportation plans during the Friday speech in North Carolina. But Harris said she's willing to work with labor and business to strengthen the economy and promised to, in further iterations of her economic policy, provide more details on her ideas. She touted the Biden administration’s investments in infrastructure, chips manufacturing and clean energy and a recent slowdown in inflation, saying she intends to “build on the foundation of this progress.”

— We asked the Harris campaign when a potential rollout would come on her transportation agenda but didn’t hear back. We’ll update you when we do.

LAWSUIT AGAINST RAIL SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIR: A former staffer is suing the office of Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), chair of the House transportation subpanel that oversees railroads. He alleges a pattern of homophobic comments from the lawmaker and his chief of staff, per a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.

Alex Chadwell, the staffer, asked to be transferred from Nehls’ D.C. office to the district office in Richmond, Texas, to escape “direct anti-gay hostility” from his boss, chief of staff Robert Schroeder, the lawsuit says. Schroeder, the suit alleges, made comments like “gays go to hell” and that natural behavior is “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” among others.

The suit also says that once Nehls and his staff discovered Chadwell was gay, Nehls and his wife, Jill, stopped interacting with him and his family at social functions, and Schroeder and Nehls removed him from job duties he had been performing.

NEHLS AND SCHROEDER FULLY DENY ALLEGATIONS: “There is no merit whatsoever to Mr. Chadwell’s claim and the allegations of sexual orientation harassment are totally false,” Emily Matthews, a spokesperson for Nehls, said.

In an email, Schroeder said “every single aspect is a complete fabrication.” Chris has the story.

Automobiles

CONNECTED VEHICLES BOOST: DOT released a vision document Friday that aims to speed up the widespread deployment of vehicle-to-everything technology (V2X). The decade-long plan has lofty ambitions, including that V2X is fully deployed on the National Highway System sometime from 2032 to 2036.

The roadmap makes no calls for legislation or suggestions of a mandate. Instead, it leans on industry, noting that it will ultimately be up to manufacturers to decide whether to install the technology in new vehicles. DOT hopes there will be 20 V2X-capable vehicle models in the early to mid-2030s, Sam reports.

During an event unveiling the plan Friday at DOT headquarters, John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said he had no firm estimates on how many vehicles currently operating in the U.S. have V2X technology installed.

— Catherine McGhee, chief deputy commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation, said during the event that funding is needed to fully deploy the technology. “I challenge you to find a state DOT anywhere in this country that has extra money laying around,” McGhee said. “That means we need to be able to tell a compelling story about the benefits of V2X.”

NTSB WEIGHS IN: The NTSB in a news release said it’s reviewing DOT’s plan to see if it satisfies any of the independent agency’s 10 open recommendations related to V2X technology.

Aviation

A BUSY START: In his first week since taking over on Aug. 8, new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg toured the company’s Renton 737 factory, visited Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, met one-on-one with a few airline customers and spoke to the presidents of IAM 751 and W24 in Seattle, according to a message to employees. Ortberg said he shared with the unions “my commitment to reset our relationship and reach a new contract where we can come together to build a strong future for our employees in the region.”

BOOSTING SAF: The FAA on Friday announced $291 million in grants for projects in 23 states related to sustainable aviation fuel and low-emissions technologies. The money, from the Inflation Reduction Act, will go to a variety of entities, including fuel producers, supply chain companies, aircraft manufacturers, airports and universities.

Gevo, Inc. snagged a major award of $16.8 million to convert an existing fuel facility in Luverne, Minnesota, into an alcohol-to-jet facility for SAF production.

Electric Vehicles

MORE BATTERY INVESTMENT IN THE SOUTH: A $1.4 billion “gigafactory” for sodium-ion batteries will be built near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Natron Energy announced last week. The batteries are generally too big for electric vehicles, but the California-based company is looking at ways they could support EV chargers, Mike Soraghan reports for POLITICO’s E&E News.

The Autobahn

— “Regional US Airports Are Back After Years of Decay.” Bloomberg.

— “JetBlue's Third-Largest Shareholder Has One Ask: A Status Upgrade.” Bloomberg.

— “‘Train Lovers’ Organize to Support Harris and Walz in Presidential Bid.” Bloomberg.

— “Battling for Budget Bookings, Discount Airlines Offer ‘Poor Man’s First Class.” Wall Street Journal.

— “JD Vance’s Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Milwaukee.” New York Times.

— “U.S. Awards $1.6 Billion to Texas Instruments to Build Semiconductor Plants.” New York Times.

— “Exclusive: Boeing, Lockheed Martin in talks to sell rocket-launch firm ULA to Sierra Space.” Reuters.

— “EV maker Rivian halts production of Amazon delivery vans amid parts shortage.” Reuters.

— “BMW recalls 1.3 million vehicles in China that may have Takata airbag inflators.” AP.

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