The Ohio derailment is spurring Congress to actually do something about train safety

A group of senators have quickly come together with a bill that could change the way the rail industry operates.

By Nicole Narea@nicolenarea 

VOX

Mar 2, 2023

An EPA worker looks for signs of fish and agitates the water in a creek to check for chemicals settled at the bottom, following the train derailment on February 20, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio.

Nicole Narea covers state politics and policy for Vox, focusing on personalities, conversations, and political battles happening in state capitals and why they matter to the entire country. She first joined Vox in 2019, and her work has also appeared in Politico, Washington Monthly, and the New Republic.

In the wake of the train derailment and toxic spill in East Palestine, Ohio, last month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to provide more oversight over railroad carriers and improve industry safety regulations with the aim of preventing future accidents.

On February 3, a freight train carrying five tank cars of the toxic chemical vinyl chloride derailed and ignited, prompting first responders to order an evacuation of the surrounding area. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board found that a wheel bearing severely overheated immediately before the accident, and while the train braked after detectors picked up the hotter than normal temperatures, it did so too late and through no apparent fault of the workers onboard.

It’s hard to know yet where exactly it went wrong in the chain of command, from the private rail companies that preside over their own maintenance and inspections to the policymakers who regulate them. But whoever is to blame, residents of East Palestine and surrounding communities in Pennsylvania where the toxic fumes have now spread are still complaining of ailments ranging from rashes to bronchitis and have been instructed to monitor their health long-term.

Though both parties have been pointing fingers at each other over the accident, the bill is a compromise among Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (Ohio), Marco Rubio (Florida), and Josh Hawley (Missouri), and Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Bob Casey and John Fetterman (both of Pennsylvania). The bill has earned praise from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but it’s not clear whether it will get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate or pass the GOP-controlled House.

In a video posted to Twitter, Sen. Brown blamed railroad executives including those at Norfolk Southern, the operator of the train that derailed in East Palestine, for failing to appropriately invest in train safety and for laying off workers while spending billions on stock buybacks.

“We know that means more train derailments, less safe trains. It means that in too many cases, hazardous materials end up in the water or in the air the way they have in East Palestine. This bill will begin to fix this and especially hold Norfolk Southern accountable,” he said.

What’s in the bill — and what’s not

The bill, known as the Railway Safety Act of 2023, adopts many of the reforms that the Biden administration has called for. It would require rail carriers to notify emergency authorities when transporting hazardous materials; develop a plan in the event that gas such as vinyl chloride is discharged; and mitigate blocked railroad crossings due to train delays.

It would introduce regulations requiring “well-trained, two person crews aboard every train” and around train length and weight, route selection, speed restrictions, track standards, maintenance, issue detection and more. In the East Palestine accident, detectors didn’t trip until moments before the derailment. Rail companies that fail to comply would face higher maximum fines under the bill.

The bill also boosts funding for HAZMAT training, for research and development into tank car safety features, and for the Federal Railroad Administration generally.

It’s hard to say whether those measures would have stopped the East Palestine accident from happening. But they might have allowed workers to catch malfunctions early, and keep them from happening in the first place with preventive maintenance on the train and track.

While the bill makes strides in improving safety regulations, it doesn’t include everything on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s wishlist. For one, he has asked rail carriers to “join a close call reporting system that protects whistleblowers who spot issues that could lead to accidents,” in which only one freight rail company currently participates voluntarily. (Rail carriers have previously cited concerns about confidentiality of the data and their own internal safety reporting systems as reasons for not participating.)

The bill also doesn’t include any protections for railroad workers, who threatened to go on strike in December amid complaints of grueling conditions with little work-life balance. They have reported being on call 24/7 every day of the year, unable to call in sick or even go to the doctor. That month, President Joe Biden reluctantly signed legislation to avert a strike, which forced unions to accept a contract that did not include paid sick days — a major sticking point in the negotiations. Offering the 15 paid sick days demanded by unions would have forced carriers, including Norfolk Southern, to hire more workers, cutting into their profits. But Rubio and Vance have questioned whether spreading these workers too thin may have contributed to the safety failures that led to the East Palestine accident.

Who is to blame for the East Palestine accident?

Both Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the policy gaps that allowed the East Palestine accident to occur.

Though Buttigieg has faced attacks from the right amid pandemic supply chain disruptions and a federal aviation safety system failure in January, the criticism has reached a whole new level since the East Palestine accident. Even while co-sponsoring bipartisan reforms, Vance has criticized Buttigieg for failing to appear at the scene of the accident for 20 days. House Republicans have even introduced a resolution calling on Buttigieg to resign.

“Secretary Buttigieg has seemed more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to the basic elements of his day job,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor.

For his part, Buttigieg has contended that the Trump administration bears responsibility for rolling back regulations that required regular safety audits and fast-braking trains to carry flammable materials.

“I heard [former President Donald Trump] say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he can come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction,” Buttigieg said while visiting East Palestine.

As my colleague Ben Jacobs writes, Trump’s decision to visit East Palestine last month shows that Republicans have seized on the accident not just as a vehicle to attack the Biden administration, but also as an “opportunity for the GOP’s populist wing to further break from party orthodoxy and target corporate America.”

The White House has also criticized Republicans for pressuring the Federal Railroad Administration to rely more heavily on automated track inspection over manual inspections and for proposing to slash funding for chemical spill cleanup.

In light of the vitriol surrounding the accident, it’s a wonder that the bipartisan group could reach any kind of agreement on reforms. But it seems to have been spearheaded by an unlikely partnership between the two Ohio senators: Brown, a progressive, and Vance, a pro-Trump freshman.

“[Vance has] been nothing but cooperative on this,” Brown told Politico.

EPA orders Norfolk Southern to test for dioxins in Ohio train derailment

Shawna Chen,

 02/03/2023

Axios 

Work crews and contractors remove and dispose of wreckage from the site of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio on Feb. 20. Photo: Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday ordered freight train operator Norfolk Southern to test for toxic pollutants that could have been released as a result of the company's decision to burn vinyl chloride from cargo on its derailed train in East Palestine, Ohio.

Why it matters: Norfolk Southern had at the time said that burning the cargo was necessary to prevent the threat of explosions from the hazardous materials in the train, but has since faced heightened scrutiny over the move and its possible impacts on the surrounding community and environment.

• The EPA said that monitoring for indicator chemicals at the site suggests the probability of dioxin contamination is "low," but made the decision to mandate testing out of an "abundance of caution.”

Details: The EPA's order — made almost a month after the train derailed — mandates testing for dioxins, which the agency considers "persistent organic pollutants" because they take a long time to break down once released into the environment.

• Dioxins are highly toxic and cancerous. They can damage the immune system and interfere with hormones, developmental processes and reproductive health.
• Dioxins typically form during the burning of fuel and waste and can remain in soil for decades, contaminating plants and crops used in the food chain.
• The possible accumulation of dioxins in East Palestine due to the train derailment could as a result pose long-term risks, a concern community members have raised.
• Worth noting: The order comes ahead of a meeting in East Palestine on Thursday night, where Norfolk Southern representatives are expected to be grilled by community members and local officials.

• The company backed out of a similar town hall last month, citing unspecified concerns for their employees' safety.

The big picture: The EPA has mandated that Norfolk Southern clean up the contamination from the site of the derailment.

Rail union says workers experiencing migraines and nausea at East Palestine train derailment site

A rail union leader is revealing new safety concerns at the East Palestine train derailment site after some workers fell ill during the cleanup process.

By: Scripps News Cleveland
Mar 02, 2023

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — A rail union leader revealed new safety concerns at the East Palestine train derailment site after some workers fell ill during the cleanup process.

The union is demanding action and immediate answers regarding the derailment and safety protocols in place.

Jonathan Long, the general chairman of the American Rail System Federation, sent a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine pleading with him to do something before an even bigger tragedy occurs.

The letter states that Norfolk Southern instructed 40 of its maintenance employees to come to the site and begin cleaning up the wreckage. It also says that employees continue to experience migraines and nausea after being willingly exposed to the chemicals at the direction of Norfolk Southern. Long also wrote in his letter that workers cleaning up in East Palestine were not provided with the appropriate personal protective equipment such as respirators, eye protection or protective clothing.

Norfolk Southern has disputed the claims about the lack of PPE provided.

In a statement, the company said they were on-scene immediately after the derailment and coordinated their response with hazardous materials professionals who were on site continuously to ensure the work area was safe to enter and that the required PPE was utilized, in addition to air monitoring that was established within an hour.

Congress is expected to hear testimony from the CEO of Norfolk Southern Railroad next week over the derailment and the company's involvement in recovery efforts.

Committees in the house and senate are both expected to hold hearings on the derailment.

This article was written by Scripps News Cleveland.

East Palestine's record of devastating derailments

• Tyler Buchanan, author of Axios Columbus 
Mar 1, 2023 - 

From the March 2, 1970, edition of the Salem News, via Newspapers.com

Long before the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern derailment exposed East Palestine to hazardous chemicals, residents suffered from a series of devastating rail car derailments that destroyed businesses, ruined local infrastructure and often left the city stuck paying for the damage.

Why it matters: Earlier generations urged stricter railroad oversight to prevent a major disaster like the one with which their community now reckons.

• Their pleas, which went largely ignored at the time, are followed a half-century later by nearly identical calls for better safety regulations.

What they're saying: No single regulation enacted back then could have prevented the 2023 crash with 100% certainty, says Anne Junod, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute who studied train derailments as a Ph.D. student at Ohio State University.

• But the longstanding inaction helps showcase railroads' record of valuing profit over proactive safety measures, she tells Axios — a cost-benefit analysis that continues putting rural communities like East Palestine in harm's way.
• "There's a constellation of problems that have deep historical roots."

By the numbers: An Axios review of hundreds of old newspaper clippings across the state and into Pennsylvania identified at least nine freight derailments in East Palestine between 1946 and 1976.

• Three occurred in a span of just two weeks in 1961, the final of these causing extensive damage to a nearby pottery factory.
• Several derailments were caused by poor track condition, which railroads are responsible for maintaining.

The intrigue: All nine happened on the same line now owned by Norfolk Southern.

Flashback: A 1970 derailment sent a Penn Central Railroad train careening into an East Palestine bridge. A married couple driving atop the bridge narrowly escaped harm.

• Penn Central initially agreed to finance a new bridge, but declared bankruptcy soon after and never paid.
• The bridge sat unfixed for years, making it difficult for emergency crews to reach certain parts of town when rail crossings were frequently blocked.
• The city and county wound up footing the bill for a replacement.

The most catastrophic crash to date happened in March 1973, when a late-night Penn Central emergency stop caused its back cars to collide with those in front, "kinking" the track.

• Crew members rushed to get the train going again and left town 40 minutes later, apparently not noticing damage to the rail line.
• Shortly thereafter, an Amtrak passenger train derailed at that spot and crashed into a nearby fabricating plant.
• A Penn Central employee on board was killed and 19 others were injured, including two small children.

The site of the deadly 1973 train derailment in East Palestine. Several cars crashed into the Adamson factory, causing major damages that went uncovered by the company's insurance plan. Photo: Google Maps

By that point, city officials had had enough and pleaded with then-Gov. John Gilligan for help.

• Widespread anger was directed toward the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's "rather casual response to complaints lodged against the railroad by the municipality," one newspaper reported.
• "We need the railroad, but we also need the lives of the people in the community," nearby Leetonia Mayor Albert Wardingley said.

Context: Penn Central was a literal and figurative "wreck" at that point, H. Roger Grant, a prominent railroad historian at Clemson University, tells Axios.

• The company was hurt by deteriorating rail infrastructure, poor corporate leadership and increased competition from trucking and air freight.
• Over time, the federal government shouldered a greater responsibility overseeing the industry, eventually consolidating Penn Central and other struggling companies into a public railroad known as ConRail in 1976.

ConRail promised Ohioans a "better way to run a railroad" — with modernized equipment, safer rail lines and fewer damage claims.

• Meeting with representatives from seven area communities, ConRail pledged to repair and regularly inspect the tracks, plus enforce reasonable train speed limits.
• Local officials reportedly left the meeting pleased and ConRail began maintenance on the line.

A ConRail newspaper advertisement and a news clipping published one month apart in the Zanesville Times Recorder's April 6, 1976, edition and Salem News' May 14, 1976, edition, via Newspapers.com

Just four weeks later, Mary Mansell was baking pies in a local restaurant when she heard the familiar sound of a train barreling through downtown.

• A derailed boxcar carrying lumber then crashed into an Amoco gas station and sent debris flying through her kitchen window.

William Kissinger's station had been damaged repeatedly by earlier train incidents. Now it was ruined.

• When a newspaper reporter asked if he planned to rebuild it, Kissinger said he wasn't sure.

The bottom line: The troubled line through East Palestine was eventually acquired by Norfolk Southern in 1998.

• Twenty-five years later, an NS train carrying hazardous chemicals came through town on a Friday night.
• Then, once again, calamity.

Vivek Ramaswamy is Fox News’ shiny new object. His comments decrying “climate religion” have a lot to do with that.


WRITTEN BY TED MACDONALD
PUBLISHED 03/02/23 

On the February 21 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, multimillionaire former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy announced his run for president as a Republican candidate.

Ramaswamy has been no stranger to Fox: Since January 2022, he has appeared in Fox News weekday programming roughly 77 times. It’s not a stretch to say that his presidential run has been at least partially manufactured by Fox News.

One of the reasons for his popularity on Fox is his constant drumbeat against climate policies. In addition to railing against corporations promoting environmental, social, and governance principles (ESG) and stating that climate change has nothing to do with the climate and is just a front in order to “punish people & exercise power,” Ramaswamy has made it a point to mention “climate religion” in his Fox appearances.

These comments fit perfectly into Fox’s long-running campaign of amplifying climate misinformation and delaying climate action.
Ramaswamy's “climate religion” comments are a staple of his Fox interviews

In Ramaswamy’s aforementioned Tucker Carlson Tonight appearance, he said “climate religion … is completely shackling the American economy” and called it a “sacred cow” that we need to “take to the slaughterhouse.” And in recent interviews, he made sure to get this point across to the Fox audience.

On the March 1 edition of Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria, he said “ending climate religion” is one of his campaign planks, while on the February 26 edition of Fox News’ The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton, he stated that “climatism” is a form of “scientism rather than science. That is a religion.” And on the February 23 edition of Hannity, he noted that he is “​​dismantling this climate religion. We have been addicted to a climate religion that shackles the United States while leaving China untouched.”

On the February 22 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, he stated that he wants to focus on problems like “the rise of secular religions like wokeness and climatism.” On this same day, he also referenced dismantling “climate religion” on Fox Business’ Varney and Co. A clip of this was played later that day on Fox Business’ The Big Money Show.

He also compared climate change to a religion during a February 10 Tucker Carlson Tonight appearance. He referred to the “environmental and ESG movement and related climate religion” as just a “Trojan horse for global equity.”
Fox has long sown the seeds of Ramaswamy’s “climate religion” comments

Ramaswamy could have easily just copied and pasted his “climate religion” comments from other Fox segments. Fox has long belittled those concerned about climate change by painting them as part of a radical extremist movement, one that is detached from reality and one that has lost traditional values like faith and morality. Even recently, Fox’s most-watched shows have been hammering this point.

Look no further than the February 28 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight. Tucker Carlson lamented the decline of traditional organized religion in America, noting that we need to accept the “​​fact that we are not God.” He then stated that “ignoring that fact leads to insanity. Or in the case of modern America, it leads to the trans agenda and climate theology.”

Before interviewing Ramaswamy on February 10, Carlson went on a rant about how climate change is like a religion, insinuating that those who care about climate change are “referring back to the primitive religions that dominated this Earth until pretty recently.” And on the February 9 edition, Carlson played a clip of an interview where former Carl’s Jr. CEO Andy Puzder stated, “We're facing a group think on the left that’s really metastasized almost into a religion. And they use things like climate change.”

On December 12, Carlson offered a climate denial-filled opening monologue that included mocking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for saying that Christians should care about climate issues and be good stewards of the Earth. He described his comments like so: “Climate, declared Father Buttigieg, is a moral issue — not a meteorological matter, not even a policy topic. It’s a moral issue. Climate is a question that bears directly on the fate of your mortal soul. When you mistreat the climate, you risk damnation. … OK, Rev. Pete.” On October 27, he hosted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to claim that “the climate agenda is a religion to them.”

On October 17, Laura Ingraham hosted contrarian grifter Michael Shellenberger to discuss how, as Ingraham put it, “apocalyptic greens are in the grips of a bad religion.” On September 28, Sean Hannity hosted Mike Huckabee to claim that “for the people on the far left, this whole idea of the climate and climate change, it's not a political issue. This is their religion.” The September 14 edition of Special Report aired a clip of Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) saying that “the religion today of the Democrat Party is a religion of climate. They worship the sun god, the wind god, and the god of wishful thinking.”

Even several years ago, Fox employees and guests were complaining that people were too alarmist about climate change. One of the network’s employees, Pete Hegseth, consistently makes it a point to mock climate action and link it to religion. They’ve also colorfully discussed how climate action can be compared to ancient human sacrifices.
Fox now has a Republican presidential candidate who makes decrying “climate religion” a central plank of his campaign

People have every right to be concerned about climate change — the crisis is worsening in front of our eyes and world leaders are doing very little to solve it. By disparaging climate activists and policies as alarmist or part of a religious cult, Fox is creating an alternate reality for their viewers, one where climate change is not a serious problem and the real problem is actually the people calling for action.

This is exactly the point of the network’s promotion of Ramaswamy. Fox and Ramaswamy want to protect the status quo, and this includes boosting the wealthy fossil fuel companies whose products are imperiling the planet. By consistently painting climate activists as cultists and nut jobs who want to destroy the traditional ways of American life, they can whip their viewers into a frenzy and get them to ignore how the climate crisis is a real and serious threat to their lives.

Fox has spent years either dismissing the seriousness of climate change or outright denying it. It’s because of this disinformation campaign that climate change is a divisive political issue among the U.S. public. Even the smallest things now, like an option in Xbox controllers that makes them more carbon friendly, are enough to spur a Fox freakout, because the network knows it will galvanize viewers into continuing to treat climate change as a divisive issue.

Thus, Vivek Ramaswamy’s invocations of the problem of “climate religion” are a perfect gift to Fox. They give the network more ammunition to treat climate change as part of the broader culture war and help Fox shape its platform for the Republican presidential candidates in 2024.

Expect to see Ramaswamy on the network a lot more in the coming weeks and months.

THE HEGEMON'S REAL OBJECTIVE
U.S. military base on the Black Sea possible in 2023: Romanian media

kw/mw 02.03.2023

U.S. Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force 16.2 conduct speed reload training exercises in Bucharest, Romania;

 MIHAL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, RO

The U.S. Army may open its military base on the Black Sea in 2023. It would become a way of strengthening NATO's eastern flank, Romanian media reported. Radio Europa Liberă portal and the “Newsweek Romania” weekly claim that the U.S. military base in Romania may be open based on the so-called Black Sea Security Act adopted in December 2022 by the Foreign Affairs Committee of

Romanian media pointed out that the document states that the U.S. recognizes the Black Sea basin as an area of Russian aggression. Clauses of the Black Sea Security Act provide also that the Black Sea countries are “essential in countering the aggression of the Russian government and contribute to NATO's collective security”.

The Bucharest-based media stressed that the Act emphasizes the need for “a stable, rotating NATO naval presence in the Black Sea”. However, they note that the 1936 Montreaux Convention may be a barrier to opening a U.S. military base in the Black Sea region, but they also cite one U.S. report that describes “how to circumvent” the 1930s regulations.

According to the Romanian media, the U.S. troops would probably operate as part of a small Black Sea fleet under the Romanian flag or as part of NATO troops. The likely location of the U.S. military base may be the Danube Delta as it is easily accessible for air defense support units.

U.S. troops in Romania are currently stationed at three military bases: Mihail Kogălniceanu, Deveselu, and Câmpia Turzii.

Orlando Pride Ditching White Shorts to Make Menstruating Players 'More Comfortable'

They are believed to be the first NWSL team to take such an action.

By Tom McKenna

Published on 3/2/2023 at 3:57 PM

PHOTO CREDIT: INSTAGRAM / ORLANDO PRIDE

The Orlando Pride, a pro franchise in the National Women’s Soccer League, announced this week that it would be jettisoning white athletic shorts as part of its team uniform, in order to make ‘players more comfortable and confident when playing during their menstrual cycle.’

‘With the change, the Pride become the first NWSL team to update to dark shorts due to period concerns,’ the team said in a statement.

‘We must remove the stigma involved in discussing the health issues impacting women and menstruating non-binary and trans athletes if we want to maximize performance and increase accessibility to sport. I am proud to be part of a Club that is making a small but extremely impactful change when it comes to both our professional and youth players,’ Orlando Pride VP of Soccer Operations and General Manager Haley Carter said. ‘The experience that players have and the safety and comfort they feel when wearing an Orlando Pride crest is a critical area of focus for us. We will continue to not only listen to player feedback but keep taking steps to make Orlando a world-class destination for athletes.’

AVIATION

How to get serious about climate change

BY DAVID G. VICTOR AND JEFF ENGLER, 

OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - 03/02/23 

Greg Nash
An American Airlines plane lands at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va.,

 on Thursday, February 23, 2023.


The last 12 months have seen extraordinary progress in the U.S. effort to cut emissions of the pollution that causes climate change. Three new laws, including last summer’s Inflation Reduction Act, are set to mobilize about $1 trillion of new spending on clean energy and industry.

For all the good news, however, these are just the first steps in a serious program to cut emissions. That’s because showering cash on today’s industries can’t eliminate the pollution of warming gases. That kind of profound change requires much more disruptive investment in wholly new kinds of technologies and businesses. On this front, the federal government could play a much bigger role by using its power to regulate pollution, pry open markets to more competition and actively back the disruptors.

Aviation is a leading example of how this new approach to transformative innovation could unfold. While aviation accounts for just 3 percent of global warming today, its share is rising — and technologies developed for aviation such as new kinds of propulsion systems that use electricity or hydrogen can have big impacts in other industries as well.

Today’s aviation business is designed for insiders. It is tuned for a certain kind of innovation — small, marginal changes that help airlines compete and don’t cause much disruption. Aircraft and engines keep getting a bit more efficient with every new vintage of gear. The same two companies — Boeing and Airbus — have dominated the market for decades. Airlines come and go, but the airplane hasn’t profoundly changed since Boeing’s 707 made long haul travel possible in the late 1950s.

Cleaning up aviation requires a lot more disruption. That’s because ideas for radical improvements in efficiency and new fuels probably won’t just come from the insiders. On top of that, climate scientists are learning that airplanes affect the climate not just by spewing carbon dioxide, which comes from burning fossil fuels,but also by creating contrails— the wispy clouds that form behind a jetliner on some days. Those contrails, eerily beautiful as they often are, have a much bigger impact on the climate than CO2, although exactly how much of an impact and when is proving hard to pin down.

Today’s aviation industry, keen to avoid disruption, has obsessively focused on one solution: switching the fuel that makes jetliners move. The solution, they think, is “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF). Because SAF isn’t made with petroleum it could sharply cut carbon dioxide. But that solution doesn’t much help if the bigger problem is actually contrail clouds. Rerouting aircraft might be needed or finding new kinds of SAF that burn cleaner. But those solutions, too, fail to make much of a dent in the contrail problem.

A much more diverse array of solutions will be needed, and that’s where the federal government can play a bigger role. Right now, Congress is debating reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with the goal of finalizing a new plan for the nation’s aviation regulator by September. Right now, that debate isn’t much focused on climate change. But Congress can fix that easily. And there are strong bipartisan incentives to do so since creating new, cleaner aviation businesses will benefit American innovators and American workers. Some of the most promising ideas, indeed, are emerging right here. Their problem: The cozy industry today keeps them from being put into practice.

One thing Congress could demand with the reauthorization is requiring the FAA to orchestrate airplane competitions so that diverse ideas can get traction. Instead of picking single winners — as NASA has often done — it should follow the playbook of the Pentagon and choose several rival contractors because the best approaches are unknown today. (Two FAA programs, known as CLEEN and FAA-Fast could run these competitions, with the right authorization and budget.)


In the auto industry, a big shock that helped opened the market for electric vehicles came from the success of Tesla — a firm that survived thanks to government support in early days. Boeing and Airbus need to face their own Tesla moment.

One way to avoid contrails is to electrify aircraft and avoid fuel combustion altogether. That means lighter electric engines. (One of us, Engler, leads a company that builds those engines.) it also means onboard storage systems such as batteries or fuel cell devices that convert liquid fuels to electricity. It will, surely, require new certification and also new ground handling equipment. Still other options involve using hydrogen as a fuel — and making the hydrogen with clean methods.

A plane competition needs to start with the kinds of aircraft that are good test beds for new ideas — single-aisle short- and medium-range devices. They account for enough of the aviation market that success will matter for the climate. More importantly, once starting with those aircraft then new technologies, as they improve, can spread more widely.

The FAA could also make it easier for successful innovators to know that new ideas can compete. That means putting a priority on certifying for flight novel technologies. The current certification system is broken because regulators don’t look widely enough at risks and opportunities. That’s why it seems Boeing’s 737Max aircraft was prematurely given the green light to fly by the FAA, only to be grounded later when risks were assessed properly. The FAA must do what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has done for nuclear reactors and show more clearly how new designs will be certified, so that they can compete in the market. The FAA could also signal that it will award landing slots at busy airports to airplanes that are hyper-clean. That would create a credible signal that the market will demand these new planes as innovators start to supply them.

This kind of disruption playbook — not just spending money on new ideas but using the tools of regulation, market competition and assuring demand — will work in many other industries as well. In the steel industry, for example, innovators in Sweden have built a new mill to make clean steel because government didn’t just help them pay for it but also, with companies like Volvo, helped orchestrate the demand for clean steel once the supply was built. That same playbook can be used in cement, plastics, shipping and other industries that account for a large share of emissions and must not be left behind. Survey says: Two-thirds of voters want bipartisan action on pro-family policiesWhat to make of the new US tech industrial policy?

It won’t be easy to eliminate emissions from an economy that, for more than a century, has been optimizing itself without worrying about emissions. But market forces can be redirected so long as government is fit for purpose. It’s too easy to focus on industry as it is today, rather than on the disruptions that will be needed to open space for new ideas — new firms and wholly new industries.

David G. Victor is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. He is the co-director of the campus-wide Deep Decarbonization Initiative, which focuses on real-world strategies for bringing the world to nearly zero emissions of warming gases. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Jeff Engler is the CEO of Wright Electric, a startup manufacturing engines for electric airplanes.

Startup Figure Unveils Photos Of World's First 'General Purpose' Bipedal Humanoid Robot

By Marvie Basilan
03/03/23

KEY POINTS 

Figure 01 is expected to be developed into a bot that will support logistics, warehousing and more

The bipedal robot will run for five hours and have a payload of 20 kilograms

Experts from Boston Dynamics, Tesla, GoogleX and more make up Figure's team of 40 experts

Artificial intelligence robotics startup Figure has unveiled photos and a video of Figure 01, which the company calls the world's first "general purpose" humanoid robot. The bipedal robot is expected to benefit the workforce and help address labor shortages.

"This humanoid robot will have the ability to think, learn, and interact with its environment and is designed for initial deployment into the workforce to address labor shortages and over time lead the way in eliminating the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs," the 2022-founded company said in a press release Thursday.

In the press release, Figure also revealed that its team of 40 industry experts has a combined 100 years of AI and humanoid experience as they come from GoogleX, IHMC, Tesla, Apple SPG, Cruise and Boston Dynamics.



"Once Figure's humanoids are deployed to work alongside us, we'll have the potential to produce an abundance of affordable, more widely available goods and services to a degree the world has never seen," Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock said.

Adcock noted that Figure 01, in its early development stages, will have repetitive and structured tasks, but advancements in software and robot learning will help the team expand the robot's capabilities.

READ MORE
Next Industries' Tactigon Says It Has Answer To The Question If Robot Could 'Humanize Itself'

According to Figure, its humanoid robot will stand 5-foot-6 inches tall, weigh 60 kilograms, have a payload of 20 kilograms, a runtime of five hours, and is expected to "go beyond single-function robots and led support across manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail."

Engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum noted that while it is "generally skeptical" about announcements from companies that emerge "out of stealth with ambitious promises and some impressive renderings," it was impressed by the team that Figure got together to make Figure 01 a reality.

Representative image of a humanoid robot.

 KOHJI ASAKAWA/PIXABAY

The magazine added that the images and video shown are only renderings of what the team wants Figure 01 to be. On the other hand, the company expects that the final hardware of its robot will be very similar to what it has shown so far.

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Figure wants its robots to make an entry point in warehouses, which the company will make possible by building an AI system that allows its humanoids to "perform everyday tasks autonomously."

First reported by TechCrunch in September, Figure operated in stealth before its Thursday announcement. At the time, the outlet revealed that Figure hired research scientist Jerry Pratt to be its CTO and former Boston Dynamics roboticist Gabe Nelson as chief scientist.

POSTMODERN PETTY BOURGEOIS 

Tech Layoffs 2023: 97,000 Job Cuts Last Year, 63% Started Their Own Companies

By Pola Rubio
03/03/23

This Startup is Changing The Landscape of Training and Retaining Talent PIXABAY

KEY POINTSThe 2022 tech job cuts marked a 649% increase from the roughly 13,000 job cuts in 2021
The technology sector is currently the leading industry in job cuts
Around 58% of those who started a company after a layoff feel better about their new job security, a survey shows

Tech companies let go over 97,000 employees in 2022, forcing–or inspiring–many of the laid-off workers to start their own companies.

According to a report from placement services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the 2022 figure marked a 649% increase from the roughly 13,000 tech industry job cuts in 2021. This makes the technology sector the leading industry in job cuts, followed by the automotive sector, which cut 31,000 workers last year.

"The overall economy is still creating jobs, though employers appear to be actively planning for a downturn. Hiring has slowed as companies take a cautious approach entering 2023," Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said.

Various tech giants continued their layoff spree this year, with Microsoft cutting 10,000 workers, Google cutting 12,000 jobs, and Amazon letting go of 18,000 employees, among others, according to layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi.

Zoom, Paypal, GitHub and Google's parent company Alphabet also announced thousands of job cuts earlier this year.

On the brighter side, the layoffs prompted many of the workers to start their own companies after raising the necessary capital.

In a survey of over 1,000 laid-off tech workers, finance company Clarify Capital found that 63% of tech workers have started their own company post-layoff, and 58% of those who started a company after a layoff feel better about their new job security.

"Nearly 1 in 4 tech workers couldn't get hired by another company post layoff," Clarify stated, adding that the workers who started a company reported a yearly salary increase of $13,000 on average.

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Further, 83% of the tech workers surveyed reportedly launched new companies in the computer or IT industry, with 91% saying that their new company competes with their previous companies.

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"For 40% of respondents, the idea to start a company came between six and 12 months after getting laid off," Clarify wrote. "Nearly one-third had their lightbulb moment even sooner — in under six months — and the rest took a year or more to decide that owning a business was the next logical step in their career."

US Justice Dept Wants Execs To Foot Bill For Corporate Misconduct

By Chris Prentice
03/02/23 

Lisa Monaco, deputy U.S. attorney general, speaks during the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Police Executives Forum in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, May 6, 2022. Sarah Silbiger/Pool via REUTERS REUTERS

The U.S. Justice Department is rolling out a new policy aimed at pushing the cost of corporate crime into the pockets of executives, the latest in a series of changes at the agency under President Joe Biden.

The agency's criminal division will give discounts on fines for companies that seek to claw back compensation from corporate wrongdoers, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at a conference on Thursday. Any company seeking to resolve a U.S. investigation will also have to implement a plan to include compliance goals as part of compensation and bonuses.

"Our goal is simple: to shift the burden of corporate wrongdoing away from shareholders, who frequently play no role in misconduct, onto those directly responsible," Monaco said at an American Bar Association conference in Miami.

Companies often pay fines to U.S. authorities to resolve investigations into wrongdoing, a practice that some say further harms shareholders but leaves corporate executives unscathed.

"Clawbacks are not a new idea but our view is that they have never really been deployed effectively or regularly," Marshall Miller, principal associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department, told Reuters in an interview along the sidelines of the conference.

The three-year pilot program will give discounts tied to the size of the clawback on penalties, and firms will get to retain a portion of that money even if they are unsuccessful in clawing back compensation provided they try to in good faith, Miller said.

"If you are going to create a culture that calls out misconduct and promotes compliance, you need people to have skin in the game," Miller said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last year dramatically expanded the scope of its clawback powers, which were created in 2002.

Monaco's "strong warning to 'step up and own up' is a clear shot across the bow of corporate America for non-disclosing companies," said John Carney, co-leader of BakerHostetler's White Collar, Investigations and Securities Enforcement and Litigation team.

"Balancing the threat of prosecution with the allure of not seeking 'a guilty plea from a corporation' that comes forward could be the deciding factor in self reporting."

NATIONAL SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

Monaco on Thursday also detailed a plan to dedicate more resources to corporate crime with national security implications.

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The Justice Department will hire more than 25 new prosecutors to investigate sanctions evasion, export control violations and similar economic crimes, including a new position of chief counsel for corporate enforcement within the agency's national security division.

The agency alongside the Treasury and Commerce Departments issued a warning to industry on complying with export controls and sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

Education Department moves to make leaders of failing private colleges personally liable for unpaid government debts

BY LEXI LONAS - 03/02/23 

AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is pictured in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Aug. 24, 2022.

The Education Department announced Thursday it is implementing formal guidance to determine when leaders of failing private colleges would be personally liable for unpaid government debts.

Officials said under the authority of the Higher Education Act (HEA), the department can make leaders of private colleges that are failing “to operate in a financially responsible way to assume personal liability” if there are unpaid debts owed to the government.

The new measure enacts certain criteria to be used when determining if leaders deserve to be held personally liable for the debt, according to an announcement from the agency.

They listed three main factors to determine personal liability for unpaid debts: if there was any previous legal action against the institution for not following federal student aid rules, if there were previous concerns of major compliance issues with the college or if compensation for executives at the school has hurt the finances of the institution.

The agency “anticipates” they will enforce personal liability on individuals from private colleges “that pose the largest financial risk to the United States.”

The department said the authority to implement these actions is under a “long-standing provision” of the HEA but the agency “did not have a practice” for enforcing it previously.

Making the individuals personally liable would allow the government to charge them with liabilities not paid for by the private college they represent such as school closures or student loan borrower defense discharges.

The agency gives borrower defense discharges to students who have been defrauded by their institutions.

An example includes the Department of Education saying it would discharge millions of dollars in student loans for those who went to Corinthian College after the school was found to have lied about job placement rates and the ability to transfer credits.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is canceling the loans of more than a million borrowers cheated by for-profit colleges,” Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said. “But too often, the owners and executives of these colleges escape liability.”Michael Steele on Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘Just shut the hell up’Former Trump ICE director on border separations: ‘They chose to separate themselves’

“Congress gave the Department the authority to make college owners and operators personally responsible for these losses in certain circumstances and we are going to use that authority to hold them accountable, defend vulnerable students, protect taxpayer dollars, and deter future risky behavior,” he added.

This is just one of several actions taken by the federal government to go after institutions that aren’t providing financial benefits to their students.

In January, the department introduced a regulatory proposal that would allow it to make a list of colleges where students are burdened with high costs of debts with little financial value.