U.S. Legislative News

On October 4, the Senate Commerce Committee approved S. 1885, the AV START Act, legislation to advance the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs). S. 1885 is similar to the House-passed AV bill, H.R. 3388, the SELF-DRIVE Act. Both bills would preclude states from passing any laws that would or would attempt to regulate how self-driving cars perform. Instead, state lawmakers would continue in their role of licensing drivers, law enforcement, and crash investigations.
 
Prior to the bill’s approval, NAFA met with the Senate Commerce Committee as part of its legislative fly-in on September 29. NAFA was pleased to see that following this meeting, the Senate Commerce Committee adopted the NAFF-sponsored amendment that addresses ownership of vehicle generated data. The amendment, offered by Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), restricts any federal agency from promulgating any regulation with respect to the ownership of, control of, or access to information or data generated by a highly automated vehicle (HAV), pending a report from an HAV Data Access Advisory Committee.
 
NAFA was also pleased to see that the Advisory Committee’s voting members will include a representative of a fleet management company or a professional fleet manager. Of concern at first was an unexpected hitch in which the Inhofe amendment inadvertently dropped fleets from the Advisory Committee. The glitch was "fixed," however, through the combined efforts of NAFA, the American Automobile Leasing Association, and Safelite Autoglass’ Washington, D.C., staff.
 
Data access and ownership will continue to be an issue as the HAV legislation works its way through Congress.

 
On September 27, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was weighing changes to the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS), the federal program that requires the blending of ethanol with gasoline, to allow exported ethanol to count toward annual quotas mandated by Congress. Current rules only count fuels blended in the U.S. and exclude ethanol that’s exported abroad in the required credits that come from either blending 10 percent ethanol into gasoline or buying credits from ethanol producers. This change is heavily favored by the oil industry, would stand to save a substantial sum in RFS credits that would no longer need to be purchased.

The EPA is also considering potential reductions in renewable volume requirements (RVOs). Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a major biofuels advocate in Congress, voiced concerns over the recent EPA action, arguing that a move to reduce the 2018 and 2019 RVOs for biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel under the RFS is contrary to what President Trump had promised throughout his campaign. An agency spokesperson said October 3 that nothing is final and that the potential changes are still open to public comment.


On October 2, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment on a number of existing regulations as part of an agency-wide review. Regulations to be reviewed include the requirement for electronic logging devices (ELDs), set to go into effect December 18; the final rule establishing minimum training requirements for entry-level commercial motor vehicle operators; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 2013 final rule on Occupant Crash Protection; NHTSA’s 2015 final rule on electronic stability control systems for heavy vehicles; NHTSA’s 2016 final rule on greenhouse gas emissions and fuel-efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles; and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) 2016 final rule on commercial driver license drug and alcohol clearinghouse.

In the notice, DOT encouraged the public "to provide input on existing rules and other agency actions that are good candidates for repeal, replacement, suspension or modification." Comments will be accepted through November 1. The agency said it may hold a public meeting to discuss and consider comments. It also said the review will result in a final report outlining the results of the reviews as well as specific recommendations.