LTFL Aviation & Environmental Law

More on airports and the coronavirus. Los Angeles International Airport is launching a first-in-the-nation pilot of thermal camera technology, using the devices to screen both arriving and departing passengers. Here’s how it will work: If a voluntary participant is identified as having an elevated body temperature, a medical professional near the camera operator will approach the identified person and request a secondary screening using a handheld, non-contact thermometer, ...LAX said in its release on Monday. https://bit.ly/3fRF8Xe Departing passengers will be advised not to travel (though not physically stopped from doing so) and arriving passengers may be referred to CDC staff on site, according to the airport. LAX will evaluate three different types of cameras during the pilot, with input from Transportation Security Administration, the CDC, airlines and county health officials. The move is an example of the kind of ad-hoc patchwork of airport and airline measures that have popped up as the federal government has declined to set any sort of mandatory standard to help prevent the virus from spreading via air travel. (See previous posts about the lack of Federal Aviation Administration leadership in this regard). #airports #covid19 #LAX #FAA #ThermalCamera #CDC #TSA #airtravel

Update on my article about Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Dickson telling Congress the FAA will not require face masks on airplanes. The next day, Thursday, June 18, 2020, Airports Council International - North America President Kevin M. Burke appeared before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security and said that federal guidelines would help to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and re-instill confidence of those who work in or travel through America’s airports. https://bit.ly/2V6Qcru #airports #covid19 #airlinesandairplanes #aviationindustry

On Wednesday, June 17, 2020, FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson testified before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He told the Senators that "[o]ur space is aviation safety and their [CDC] space is public health," he said, later adding that "these will not be regulatory mandates," referring to requiring passengers to wear masks. https://bit.ly/3hLRVfm This is long been the issue with the FAA, they do not see that public health is part of their mandate. This is true when it comes to noise, air emissions, climate change, as well as health standards for aircraft. Yet, the FAA has successfully pushed out other regulatory agencies from exerting control over public health issues caused by aviation. For example, the EPA has control over noise pollution, except noise. Will the FAA ever make public health a priority?

In U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, the Supreme Court today sided with the developers of the Atlantic Coast pipeline (slated to run from West Virginia to North Carolina) in a dispute over the project's planned crossing beneath the Appalachian Trail. Justices for the court ruled in a 7-2 decision to overturn the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' finding that the Forest Service could not authorize the natural gas pipeline to pass hundreds of fe...et below the trail. The decision hinged on whether the Appalachian Trail were "lands" under the National Parks' jurisdiction and therefore the pipeline could not cross it or whether the land was still under the Forest Service's jurisdiction and therefore the pipeline could cross it. Justice Thomas, writing for the majority, said that the property was still under the Forest Service's jurisdiction, although the National Parks had an "easement." Justice Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the "land" is managed by the National Parks and the law makes no distinction between easement or ownership. The pipeline still requires more than half a dozen approvals tied up in litigation unrelated to the Supreme Court case. https://bit.ly/2Y8izHP #environmentallaw #nationalparks #pipeline #pipelinesafety #pipelinemanagement See more

Last Friday, June 5, 2020, was "World Environment Day." While this year's celebration flew mostly under the radar (the theme this year was "Celebrate Biodiversity" and the host countries were Colombia and Germany) due to many other important topics, Airlines for America issued a press release with a headline "U.S. Airline Celebrate World Environment Day." https://bit.ly/2BM90p8 The press release states that "U.S. airlines were transporting a record 2.5 million passengers and ...58,000 tons of cargo per day and at the same time they were contributing just 2 percent of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions." The airlines say that they hope to cut "net carbon emissions in half in 2050, relative to 2005 levels, and by improving...fuel efficiency by 40 percent." While this is a step in the right direction, so much more needs to be done in areas besides carbon footprint. #airlines #worldenvironmentday #carbonemissions #fuelmanagement #carbonfootprint See more

Slipped under the door when Congress was in recess, hidden on its webpage as a 2018 Report to Congress, and released on a day that DOT Secretary Chao announced billions of dollars of aid to airports, the FAA released its overdue Report to Congress in fulfillment of Congress’ directive in Section 188 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 on April 14, 2020. The full report can be found here: https://bit.ly/2W2F5AC. Section 188 called on the FAA to evaluate alternative metrics ...to the DNL system, such as the use of actual noise sampling and other methods, to address community airplane noise concerns The Report is a rather thin and perfunctory analysis of noise metrics. And it comes as no surprise that the FAA stands by its use of DNL as its primary metric for noise modeling. The Report concludes that DNL provides the best information for its environmental decision-making because it considers the magnitude, duration, and frequency of the noise events. The FAA does admit that there are supplemental metrics that could be used in certain situations in addition to DNL, such as N75 for speech interference, % Awakening for sleep disruption, Leq(8) for learning disruption, and Lmax(C) for rattle caused by low frequencies. #FAA #aviationnoise #DNL #reporttocongress #airplanenoise See more

Today is National Noise Awareness Day. As part of that, HMMH published a blog post showing the decrease in noise at two airports because of the COVID-19 crisis. While I do not think that you can draw any policy or legal conclusions from the data, it is interesting. https://hmmh.com//blog/international-noise-awareness-day-2/

The Federal Aviation Administration announced today that it would "adjust the operating hours" of "approximately 100 control towers" in order "to ensure the continued resiliency of the air traffic control system amid the #covid19 pandemic. While the FAA stated that the reason for these "adjustments" was to allow for "continued safe operations throughout the national airspace system while minimizing health risks to our workforce," the FAA conceded that the "adjusted" towers have seen a significant reduction in flights, "especially during the evening and nighttime hours, since the pandemic began." https://bit.ly/3axv96a #AirTraffic #ControlTowers

On April 21, US Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (#EPA) published the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) in the Federal Register, with a scheduled implementation date of June 22, 2020. https://bit.ly/2znMvWt When implemented, the NWPR will result in several significant changes to the extent of "waters of the U.S." In other words, it may change what "waters" are subject to Clean Water Act, including, but not limited to, "ephemeral" waters, wetlands, and interstate waters. Additionally, many aquatic resources that were, as a matter of policy, not considered "waters of the U.S." have been codified as such by the NWPR. #USACE #NWPR #NavigableWaters #Wetlands #cleanwateract

U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a press release last night https://bit.ly/2RWXFHR stating that $2.9 billion would be made available to passenger #aircarriers, including two major airlines and 54 smaller passenger air carriers. The #CARESAct, Title IV, Subtitle B allocated $25 billion to go to passenger air carriers for "payroll support programs." Treasury also announced that it had concluded Payroll Support Program agreements with Allegiant, American Airlines, Delta Ai...r Lines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and United Airlines. Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and SkyWest Airlines have indicated their plan to participate in the Payroll Support Program. Together, these airlines represent nearly 95% of U.S. airline capacity. Treasury will also make additional payments to approved applicants on a rolling basis. The CARES Act allocated $4 billion to cargo air carriers and $3 billion to "contractors," but Treasury has not issued any directives regarding these businesses. The press release concluded that Treasury has received hundreds of applications for the Payroll Support Program from passenger air carriers, #aircargo carriers, and contractors, and is working to review and approve applications as quickly as possible.

The Federal Aviation Administration is enabling drone use for #covid19 response efforts within its existing regulations and emergency procedures. The small unmanned aircraft rule (14 CFR, Part 107 https://bit.ly/3eveMKr) and Certificate of Authorization process (https://bit.ly/2XJAdBI) allow operators to transport goods and certain medical suppliesincluding test kits, most prescription drugs and, under certain circumstances, blood. However, the flight must comply with all provisions of the rule or authorization. In addition, the FAA will also issue special approvals for flights that support "emergency activities and appropriate government, health, or community initiatives." As always, "safety is the top consideration" with the FAA when it review the request. #drones #UAV #UAS

Two articles about air cargo worth mentioning. First, the American Shipper is reporting that with a global shortage of air cargo space some overseas passenger airlines are taking out seats in order to make room for cargo. Both American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have reported that they are investigating in-cabin cargo carriage but are currently only flying cargo in the lower deck. Transporting cargo in the passenger cabin would require FAA approval. https://bit.ly/2z2jp...eQ. Toward that end, on April 16, 2020, Federal Aviation Administration issued a Safety Alert for Operators (#SAFO) that addresses considerations when performing safety risk assessments prior to moving cargo in airplanes configured with passenger cabins, in lower cargo compartments, and in the passenger cabin (without passengers on-board). https://bit.ly/34FAirC Second, Ontario International Airport (ONT) in Ontario, California, reported a 22% increase in air cargo tonnage year-to-year in March 2020. From January through March, Ontario increased its tonnage 13% over the same period last year. It should be pointed out, however, that the top 20 cargo airports all experienced sharp declines from January through March because of the coronavirus pandemic. https://bit.ly/2K8uKMV #Aircargo #ontario #FAA #airfreight

On April 16, 2020, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) EPA completed its reconsideration of the appropriate and necessary finding for the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). Former Coal Lobbyist and current EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he was following through on the Supreme Court's direction and correcting the Obama's administration's flawed cost finding that accompanied the original regulations. EPA claims that power plants will emit no more merc...ury to the air than before. After primarily considering compliance costs relative to the HAP benefits of MATS, EPA concluded that it is not "appropriate and necessary" to curb releases of mercury, along with arsenic and other hazardous pollutants, emitted from electric utility steam generating units under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). This action from the EPA is certain to open the door for litigation coming from both sides of the issue. The coal industry will push to set aside the MATS regulations entirely. And the environmental and public health groups will attempt to get the appropriate and necessary finding re-instated. https://bit.ly/3euw36M #clearairact #MATS #EPA #Wheeler #airpollution #coal