U.S. Legislative Issues

Print this Article | Send to Colleague

On March 22, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced $15 million in grant money available to states to test alternative revenue mechanisms to help sustain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. More specifically, the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives (STSFA) grant program will fund projects to test the design, implementation and acceptance of user-based alternative revenue mechanisms, or vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) fees. The grants are only available to states or groups of states.

"This program may help us identify new sources of revenue to make sure our transportation infrastructure remains strong," said Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau. "Now is the time to begin finding new funding solutions to be ready for the expanded travel needs of a growing population."

The currently available Notice of Funding Opportunity represents the first solicitation for the STSFA.



A bipartisan group of 19 senators is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase the annual blending targets for 2017 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In a letter to the agency sent earlier this month, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and others argued that the last RFS targets issued late last year didn’t provide enough incentive for alternative fuels, especially cellulosic ethanol. The senators also criticized the EPA for taking into account distribution infrastructure in setting blending targets when the agency used its waiver authority to set levels lower than what Congress had mandated. They state that this was "explicitly rejected by Congress as a reason to grant a waiver" and that the "EPA should reverse course and release a rule this year that follows congressional intent."

EPA officials have told lawmakers at recent hearings that they intend to announce the blending targets for 2017 on time, in contrast to the late and retroactive announcement for three years — 2014, 2015, and 2016 — made late last year.



On March 15, 2016, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing titled "Hands Off: The Future of Self-Driving Cars" to explore advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and the role of government in accelerating and regulating self-driving cars. In the hearing, self-driving car executives and Congressional leaders alike warned that the lack of a cohesive national policy toward autonomous vehicles would hinder their development. "It’s absolutely critical that we have uniform rules across the country because a hodge-podge of state rules will slow down the process," said Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). Calls for adequate testing sites, similar to those already established in Sweden, Korea, China, and Japan were also made.

Congressional leaders also asked a lot of questions about retrofitting the existing fleet for autonomous use, but GM stated that it had no plans to move forward with retrofitting at this time. "We don't see this technology as applicable to retrofit a vehicle," said Mike Ableson, GM Vice President for Strategy and Global Portfolio Planning. "To do autonomous vehicles safely, you need to have a system designed for redundancy, and that's not here today. So the idea that you could somehow take that system and do it isn't practical. We don't see a path to be able to do that."

Notably, committee members and industry leaders clashed on the issue of mandatory privacy restrictions for personal data streaming from self-driving cars. Industry representatives said that they hold themselves to their own privacy policies in place and dodged questions about whether they would support a privacy mandate.

Mary Louise Cummings, Director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University, the only non-industry representative on the panel, agreed with the premise of a standard. "The fact of the matter is these cars will be one big data-gathering machine," she said.



The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is holding a pair of public meetings this spring to gather input as it develops guidelines for the safe deployment of automated safety technology. The meetings, to be held in Washington, D.C., and California, will gather information on a series of issues related to safe operation of automated vehicles as part of NHTSA’s efforts to provide manufacturers with operational guidance.

"We are witnessing a revolution in auto technology that has the potential to save thousands of lives," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "In order to achieve that potential, we need to establish guidelines for manufacturers that clearly outline how we expect automated vehicles to function – not only safely, but more safely – on our roads."

The agency also released a preliminary report of current Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards that identifies key challenges in full deployment of automated vehicles. The report, prepared by DOT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, found few existing federal regulatory hurdles to deployment of automated vehicles with traditional designs and equipment to accommodate a human driver. The report also found, however, that there may be greater obstacles to vehicle designs without controls for human drivers, such as a steering wheel or brake pedals. The Volpe Center produced the report at the request of NHTSA and DOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office.

NHTSA will hold its first public meeting on April 8 at DOT Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Details on date and location of the second meeting in California, as well as how members of the public can participate, will be published soon.



On March 29, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a civil complaint against Volkswagen in federal court, charging that the company deceived customers during a seven-year period by promoting its "Clean Diesel" vehicles as environmentally friendly in commercials, on social media and through other marketing mediums. The company quickly pulled the ads following last year's admission that it had installed illegal software on its diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests. U.S. regulators say Volkswagen's engines spewed up to 40 times the permitted levels of air pollutants in real-world driving conditions.

Although the filing doesn't name an exact figure, James Kohm, the head of the FTC's enforcement division, said that Volkswagen could potentially end up on the hook for "billions" of dollars in consumer compensation - either in the form of delivering a way to fix the vehicles or buying them back. "For years Volkswagen's ads touted the company's 'Clean Diesel' cars even though it now appears Volkswagen rigged the cars with devices designed to defeat emissions tests," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "Our lawsuit seeks compensation for the consumers who bought affected cars based on Volkswagen's deceptive and unfair practices."
 

Back to NAFA Connection