| | | | |  | | By Alex Daugherty | With help from Tanya Snyder and Oriana Pawlyk
| | | — Planes and automotive parts will be affected by President Joe Biden's plan to revoke favorable trade treatment for Russia. — Sen. Joe Manchin's vision for a scaled-down social spending bill would not include an expanded electric vehicle tax credit. — A new autonomous vehicle rule doesn't eliminate the need for manual controls, but industry groups have asked NHTSA to keep working on AV rulemaking. 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. "God say, 'You can do what you want Abe, but / The next time you see me comin' you better run' / Well Abe says, 'Where do you want this killing done?' / God says, 'Out on Highway 61.'"
| | | NO CARS, NO CAVIAR: The Commerce Department on Friday cut off Russia's access to American luxury goods in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Doug Palmer reports , imposing restrictions on the export of American-made booze, jewelry, vehicles and clothing to consumers in both Russia and neighboring Belarus. Penalties will also be applied to certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs living elsewhere. TRADE WAR: Biden also said Friday he is working with Congress and foreign leaders to revoke favorable trade treatment for Russia, a move that would allow countries to raise tariffs on Russian products. Russia was the United States' top foreign supplier of nonmilitary spacecraft in 2021, accounting for $126 million of $263 million in total imports, according to the Commerce Department. The U.S. imported about $174 million of military equipment from Russia, including about $2.3 million of military aircraft and parts, the Commerce data shows. NOT AS RELIANT (BUT STILL BAD FOR THE PUMP): Commerce Department figures show the U.S. imported $17.5 billion worth of petroleum products from Russia during 2021, nearly twice as much as in 2020, as the world economy rebounded from the pandemic and energy prices rose. However, unlike the European Union, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy imports, U.S.-Russian trade is relatively small, totaling just about $36 billion in 2021. U.S.-China trade, in comparison, totaled over $650 billion last year. TRANSPORT EFFECTS: Four of the five top U.S. exports to Russia last year were tied to transportation: civilian aircraft, engines, equipment and parts ($881 million); auto parts ($563 million); pharmaceuticals ($336 million); telecommunications equipment ($325 million); and passenger cars ($298 million). U.S. exports to Russia totaled about $6.4 billion in 2021.
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| | | MANCHIN WATCH: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) said Friday he is still open to supporting some form of an "all inclusive" climate policy through a major spending bill passed via the reconciliation process, Catherine Morehouse reports. But he said he will not support an expanded tax credit for union-made electric vehicles. "If we have a bill, I'll treat them all the same. Everyone is treated the same," Manchin said Friday at CERAWeek in Houston, reiterating that the proposed $4,500 tax credit for EVs is "a nonstarter."
| | | NOISE CANCELED: The House Transportation Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday to address the continued effects of aviation noise. Transportation Committee chair Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Aviation Subcommittee chair Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) will lead the hearing, which will include testimony from the FAA, Government Accountability Office and other aviation officials.
| | | ABOUT THAT NEW AV RULE: There's some confusion out there about what NHTSA's final rule on autonomous vehicles last week did and didn't do, so we wanted to clarify. The rule doesn't mean AV companies don't presently need manual controls for their cars — that's a massive technological undertaking that will take years. But industry groups have asked NHTSA to work incrementally on AV rulemaking, getting whatever is possible done now so companies can move faster to get AVs on the road once the agency does deal with the hard part. So with this rule, NHTSA skipped over actually figuring out how to ensure that fully autonomous vehicles can operate safely and went straight to a rule that assumes the existence of such vehicles and works through what kind of airbags and seat belts they would need. For example, the rule wrestles with the question of whether it's safe for a child to sit in what's now considered the driver's seat — even if there's no longer such a thing as a driver's seat and it's now just a "left front outboard seat" — and would require advanced air bags that sense the weight of the person in the seat to determine how forcefully the airbag should deploy. The upshot: Companies can petition NHTSA to waive requirements for manual controls. GM's Cruise has applied for one, and autonomous delivery vehicle developer Nuro got one in 2020. But the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards being waived are still written for conventional vehicles. Congress has tried and failed to raise the cap on the number of exemptions that can be granted, so for now, each manufacturer can deploy only 2,500 of vehicles with those exemptions. TARGETING CHIPS: Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.) has a new boogeyman — the $52 billion proposed by Democratic lawmakers and the White House to support domestic semiconductor production. The ongoing semiconductor shortage has caused production woes for the automotive industry. "If we can spend $782 billion on the military industrial complex and handout $52 billion in corporate welfare to the profitable micro-chip industry, please do not tell me we cannot afford Medicare for All during a pandemic or the Green New Deal during a climate emergency," Sanders tweeted on Saturday. UBER PRICES: Beginning on Wednesday, Uber users will pay a fuel surcharge of either $0.45 or $0.55 on each trip and either $0.35 or $0.45 on each Uber Eats order, depending on their location. The surcharge will last for at least 60 days, as the price for a gallon of gas around the country is now more than $4.30, according to AAA. "This consumer surcharge will apply to each ride or delivery and will vary by location, with 100% going directly to drivers and couriers," Liza Winship, Uber's head of driver operations in the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement. "Our hope is that this temporary measure will help ease the burden, but we'll continue to listen to feedback and may make changes in the future."
| | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | BUS GRANTS AWARDED: DOT and Federal Transit Administration awarded $409.3 million in grants to 70 projects in 39 states on Monday to modernize and electrify America's buses, make bus systems and routes more reliable, and improve their safety. But the 303 funding requests to FTA from transit agencies around the country totaled more than $2.5 billion, meaning many projects didn't get their grants this time around. MORE COMING: Under the infrastructure law an additional $5.1 billion in formula and competitive grant funding is authorized under the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program over the next five years, meaning more projects are expected to win approval than in previous iterations of the program. ANOTHER DOT OFFICIAL JUMPS TO AV INDUSTRY: Edward McGlone left his job as DOT's deputy assistant secretary for congressional affairs last week, a job he called "the most impactful and demanding job of my life" in a LinkedIn post. At the end of March he'll start as the North America government affairs director for Einride, a Swedish freight technology company specializing in electric trucks "pods" with no driver's cab, remotely controlled by drivers.
| | | Talia Davis will start as manager for branding and communications in Kia's Washington office. She comes to Kia from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. (h/t Daniel Lippman)
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