Transportation

Alaska’s U.S. senators are trying to block the Environmental Protection Agency from launching a procedure that would lead to the regulation and eventual removal of leaded aviation gasoline.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan this week filed a resolution to reverse an EPA regulatory finding that aircraft burning leaded fuel adds to air pollution and puts public health at risk.

Lead was removed from automobile fuel decades ago, and it’s not in the jet fuel airliners use. But it’s still a component of the aviation gas that powers piston-engine planes that carry two to 10 passengers and are ubiquitous in Alaska skies.

The EPA action in October was no surprise to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents the general aviation sector.

“The EPA’s endangerment finding kicks off a multi-year regulatory process in which the FAA is now required to develop a pathway to an unleaded future for aviation,” said the association’s senior vice president of government affairs Jim Coon.

The industry, fuel suppliers and the Federal Aviation Administration have been working for years for an orderly shift to unleaded fuel by 2030, he said.

“It’s very important to us and I think everyone understands the need to do this safely and smartly,” he said.

Airborne lead exposure is particularly damaging to children and can cause learning deficits. One peer-reviewed study found that 170 million American adults have lower IQs due to lead exposure from automobile exhaust. The EPA says levels of airborne lead in the United States have declined 99% since 1980, when the agency was phasing it out for road vehicles.

Piston-engine aircraft are now the largest single source of lead emissions to the air. But, to put that in perspective, Coon points out that the total number of gallons the fleet burns in a year amounts to what American cars burn in four hours on an average day.

Alaska’s senators issued a joint statement raising the alarm about EPA’s endangerment finding.

“This EPA decision could have a deeply negative impact on the affordability and accessibility of fuel, availability of travel, and safety for Alaskans across the state—and it must be stopped,” Murkowski said.

Sullivan warned that it could “set off a devastating chain of events that could lead to supply chain disruptions and severe price hikes for Alaskans.”

Coon said he appreciates the senators’ efforts to bring attention to the need for a smooth transition.

The Senate still needs to pass a bill to reauthorize the FAA. The bill the House passed includes a guarantee that traditional aviation gas will remain available until an unleaded version is deployed nationwide.

Alaska Airlines is buying Hawaiian Airlines for $1.9 billion. The companies announced the proposed merger Sunday at a press conference in Honolulu.

The combined organization will be based in Seattle under the leadership of Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci.

“As the two airlines rooted in the 49th and 50th state, both of which are uniquely reliant upon air travel, Alaskan and Hawaiians share a great deal in common,” Minicucci said.

At the press conference, he called out the friendship between late Hawaii and Alaska senators Daniel Inouye and Ted Stevens, and the political bonds shared by the native Hawaiian and Alaska Native groups. He said the airlines share a common corporate culture.

“We are aligned in the way we do business, the way in which we treat our employees, our engagement and support to the communities we serve,” he said.

Hawaiian Airlines serves about half the inter-island traffic in the state. Peter Ingram, Hawaiian Airlines’ president and CEO, says Honolulu will soon be an Alaska Airlines hub.

“This is the biggest announcement in Hawaiian’s history, and that’s saying a lot for a 94-year-old company,” Ingram said. “Our shared similarities, our people, and our values run deep, and that is what will ensure a prosperous future for both brands.”

The CEOs of each company say it will be 12 to 18 months before customers notice any changes, with schedules, frequent flyer programs and airline names staying the same. Minicucci promises the Hawaiian name will stay even after the merger is complete.

“The Hawaiian Airlines brand will remain, not only in name, but also in the distinctive branding that appears on the Hawaiian airplanes, at airports and other locations, and in the experience enjoyed by Hawaiian Airlines passengers, partners, employees, and the communities it serves,” he said.

It is very unusual in the industry for a purchased airline to keep its name and branding, according to Hawaii News Now business reporter Howard Dicus.

“It’s virtually unheard of,” Dicus said.

Dicus compared the promise to a combined tail design when United Airlines merged with Continental in 2010.

“This is more than a compromise. This is a recognition that the Hawaiian brand name has value,” he said.

With the deal, Alaska is picking up $1 billion in equity and $900 million in debt with Hawaiian Airlines. Minicucci said conversations on a price began early this year. The price translates to $18 per share, which is more than four times what Hawaiian Airlines had been trading at, which was only $4 per share.

“Today we have a deal because we agreed on a price that was fair, that valued the company at the right place,” Minicucci said. “And airline shares have been very volatile and so we took that aside to say. ‘What is the company actually valued at?’ The price that we offered was fair.”

Alaska has a larger workforce, with about 23,000 employees compared to Hawaiian’s 7,000.  Ingram said job protection was part of the deal.

“It was important to us at Hawaiian to ensure that Alaska will maintain and grow union jobs in Hawaii, retain flight crew bases and operations in Hawaii, with Honolulu becoming a strategic hub for the combined company,” Ingram said.

Alaska has 300 planes now, primarily Boeing 737s. The airline will get 60 more aircraft from Hawaiian, many of which are wide-body jets for international flights.

The Federal Transit Administration announced on Nov. 30 that rural ferries in Alaska will receive about $132 million. The federal money comes from the 2023 Ferry Grant Program, which is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Alaska Marine Highway’s fleet has started showing its age, and the state is struggling to keep the ships staffed. Over the past year alone, there have been significant cuts to service.

In a Nov. 30 address announcing the new windfall, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said the funds represent “a big, fat deal” for Alaskans who rely on the service.

“I grew up using the ferry system to get around Southeast, and I know how important the Alaska marine highway system is to so many Alaskan families,” said Murkowski. “By supporting operations across the state and replacing the Tustumena serving Southwest Alaska, we’re helping connect coastal communities across our state.”

$92 million of the grant will contribute to a project to replace the Tustumena, a passenger ferry connecting communities in Southwest and Southcentral Alaska. The deteriorating vessel, affectionately known as the “Rusty Tusty,” is almost 60 years old. Its replacement will be the state’s first diesel-electric hybrid ferry. The state is required to match at least $23 million for this portion of the grant.

However, the remaining $38 million in funding does not require a match — that amount is earmarked for improving the Marine Highway’s workforce and vessels.

Murkowski said the federal funding will help sustain ferry service to rural communities, and that this is a critical opportunity to transform the crumbling system.

“I encourage the state to smartly take advantage of these investments,” she said. “The future of the Alaska Marine Highway System depends on their efforts and contribution.”

To date, the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has brought a total of $716 million to support projects to revitalize the Alaska Marine Highway System.

WRANGELL — Zimovia Highway snakes along the west coast of Wrangell Island for 14 miles, with steep mountain slopes on one side and the ocean on the other.

Many of the houses far out the road sit on the waterfront. But there are only a few docks. One is an unfinished retirement hobby for Charlie Hazel.

“At 73, it’s just a fun project,” he said. “It’s not in perfect shape. But it floats.”

Three years ago, he started building a long, floating dock on his property. Battered by waves and weather, it needs constant attention. The concrete is cracked in places, and two segments are held together by fabric straps. He wants to add a ramp but hasn’t gotten around to it yet.

His wife Mel never thought it was worth all that effort.

“Now, it’s a lifeline to this whole end of the island,” she said.

A landslide came down across Zimovia Highway on Nov. 20, leaving four dead and two missing. Ever since, the Hazels’ dock has been the best way to get supplies in and people out. That’s made their property a makeshift hub of emergency management and disaster relief.

70 residents cut off

The landslide debris has effectively cut Wrangell in two. North of the slide, there’s town. And to the south, there’s the self-dubbed “out-the-roaders,” like Charlie and Mel. They live at mile 12.7.

The 450-foot-wide slide cut off power, internet and the only road to town, leaving the Hazels and about 70 other people stranded. Joan Sargent lives two doors down from the Hazels. She’s driven out to the south end of the slide a few times.

“If you’ve been to Hawaii, and you’ve seen those huge lava flows across the road, and they’re really deep. It kind of reminds me of that,” she said. “And this is movable, but it’s huge.”

From the road you can see churned earth on the pavement, covered with downed trees. The mud is deep — three stories deep by Sargent’s estimate.

“They say it is still moving. And it could slide down,” she said. “We don’t want this road open that bad. We are doing fine.”

A constant need for fuel

The Alaska Department of Transportation started clearing the debris on Thursday. Within days, they expect to clear enough for the local utility to restore the power. But there’s no clear timeline on when the road will reopen to the public.

Until then, all of the homes south of the slide can only be reached by boat. And almost all of those boats are coming to Hazel’s dock.

Fishing boats, Forest Service catamarans and local tour boats all line up to deliver the essentials.

“We can bring in supplies and get the garbage out and get the empty fuel tanks out and fresh fuel tanks in,” Charlie Hazel said. “Without the dock, it would’ve been really, really hard.”

Cars crowd Hazel’s long gravel driveway. The neighbors form bucket brigades to bring the goods up from the dock.

Often, Sylvia Ettefagh is at one end. The morning after the slide, the longtime out-the-roader was quick to start organizing. She went knocking on doors to see what neighbors needed. And she’s spent long hours making deliveries.

“So that’s my day from morning till it gets dark,” Ettefagh said. “We delivered medications into the dark.”

All kinds of things have made their way across the water — groceries, bottled water, pet food — even 40 bottles of champagne donated for the Thanksgiving holiday.

But fuel has been one of the most dire needs. In November, the sun is setting before 3:30 pm, and temperatures have been dropping into the mid-30s. And by this time of year, some families have freezers full of fish and meat they’ve spent the year gathering.

Most people are relying on generators, like the tiny red one that hums constantly at the Hazel’s house. After the slide, the city bought new generators to send out the road to families without them. On any given day, the dock is lined with dozens of jerry cans.

“We had three gas runs yesterday. And that’s a lot of gas to be lugging around,” Mel Hazel said. “But we usually have a line of people and they all go down there and they grab it and go and grab it and go.”

A history of smaller slides

Ettefagh and her husband John Verhey have lived out the road, beyond mile 12, for around 30 years. Verhey said they’ve always known something like this could happen.

“In a boat you can see scars of old slides everywhere,” he said. “So it’s definitely a thing. Just never seen it on the road system in the last 32 years we’ve been here.”

And they’ve always felt like they could deal with whatever might happen.

“There’s a bunch of us who were out here before there was power out here,” Sylvia Ettefagh said. “And so those of us who have been here have kind of been used to being very self-sufficient.”

But this slide has revealed some vulnerabilities. A lot of people get their drinking water from what’s called the 10-Mile Pipe — a cast-iron pipe that channels spring water by the roadside, about ten miles out from town. That’s blocked now.

And cell and internet service is spotty or non-existent.

In the days since, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes set up a Starlink wifi system at Hazel’s place, to smooth emergency communications. The password, taped to the side of the house, is Wrangellstrong.

But on the night of the slide, the loss of internet meant many people didn’t know why the lights had gone out until Wrangell Search and Rescue knocked on their doors.

“The way we learned about this was that the fireman came at about midnight, 12:30 a.m.,” Sargent said. “They said we’re evacuating, you know, and to go to Charlie’s place.”

Many who live closest to the slide escaped using Hazel’s dock. Ever since, evacuees have shuttled back and forth to grab more of their belongings, or to check on their houses. The City and Borough of Wrangell has even set up a daily commuter boat between the Hazel dock and town.

Like Ettefagh and Verhey, Charlie Hazel has long worried about a larger slide — especially around mile 8 of the highway. There have been dozens of rockfalls there that briefly blocked the road.

“There’s constantly rocks, big, huge, huge car-sized boulders coming down and landing on the road,” he said.

He says that’s part of why he built the dock in the first place.

WASHINGTON — Records are likely to fall this week as millions of Americans take to the skies for Thanksgiving.

The annual rush of holiday travelers will test a U.S. aviation system that is straining to keep up with demand. But federal regulators say the system is resilient and ready.

“This year, we are seeing more people flying than ever with fewer cancellations than we have seen in years,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a press conference on Monday.

The Transportation Security Administration is predicting it will screen more than 30 million people during a 12-day window that started last Friday.

“We’re ready to go,” TSA deputy administrator Holly Canevari said at a travel industry conference in Washington, D.C. last week. “I think the Sunday after Thanksgiving will be our record-breaker” for a single day, Canevari said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is expecting nearly 50,000 flights on Wednesday alone.

“While we don’t control the weather, we’re doing everything in our power to keep flights safe and keep cancellations and delays low this Thanksgiving,” said Mike Whitaker, the newly-appointed administrator of the FAA, who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last month.

The FAA responds to a troubling safety warning

Whitaker is confronting deep concerns about safety in his first weeks on the job. An independent safety review board appointed by the FAA is calling for “urgent action” to prevent plane crashes after a series of close calls on runways across the country this year.

The panel’s 52-page report, released last week, raises extensive concerns about the shortage of air traffic controllers, as well as outdated equipment, that are “rendering the current level of safety unsustainable.”

Whitaker says the FAA welcomes the report, and has already announced several new initiatives to speed up the hiring of more air traffic controllers. Those include hiring qualified students directly from aeronautical colleges and universities, and deploying dozens of high-resolution tower simulators across the country to take some pressure off of the agency’s training academy in Oklahoma.

The FAA is also looking at how to lower the attrition rate for aspiring air traffic controllers.

“There’s a fairly high failure rate” at the training academy, Whitaker told reporters on Monday. “My initial focus has been on how to make these numbers go up quickly without lowering standards.”

While troubling, some of the challenges outlined in the independent safety review are not new.

“We have not put the resources we need into funding the air traffic control system — not just this year or last year, but for decades,” said Geoff Freeman, the CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We have not prioritized it. We’ve kicked the can down the road on modernization efforts, and we’re paying the price for that today.”

Flight attendants brace for the holiday rush

Full planes and crowded overhead bins could make for a challenging holiday in the flight cabin as well.

“The holidays have always been a time period that flight attendants sort of dread going to work,” said Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants union.

“The flying is much harder. You have inexperienced people, you’re answering more questions. There’s fewer of us,” she said. “Which then often means that passengers are trying to work things out between each other, and you don’t have a referee there right at the start.”

Nelson says it used to be widespread across the industry for flight attendants to earn more on holiday shifts, but those incentives have been gradually eroding. She urges travelers to keep all of that in mind when flying.

Thankfully, she says, most do.

“The vast majority of people come to the door of our airplane with kindness in their heart and a desire for a safe, uneventful flight.”

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

WASHINGTON — In the nation’s capital, Metro trains are filling up again as federal workers come back to the office a few days a week.

But if you ask those riders, they will tell you the trains are less full than they used to be.

“It’s not as crowded as it was before, pre-pandemic,” said Gina Adu of Bowie, Md., while waiting for a train at the L’Enfant Plaza station. Damien Doyle of Cheverly, Md. agrees. “This is about it now — maybe the new normal,” Doyle said.

The new normal is ridership that’s back to about 80% of what it was before the pandemic nationwide — though it’s not distributed the same way. Public transit systems are seeing higher volume in the middle of the week. But rush hour peaks are smaller, with more trips at other times of the day and evening.

“We’ve seen that the normal workweek has changed fundamentally,” said Robert Puentes, president of the non-profit Eno Center for Transportation in Washington, and a regular Metro commuter.

The rise of remote work since the pandemic is changing the way Americans commute. And that’s prompting a crisis for big public transit systems, which were mostly designed to get lots of commuters downtown all at once, and are now scrambling to adjust to this new reality.

Congress spent tens of billions of dollars to get these agencies through the pandemic. But that money is set to run out next year.

Now a combination of ridership declines and inflation has left some major transit agencies with massive budget deficits — including systems in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

“The irony with transit is, for years the ones that were generating most of their revenue through passenger fares were the ones that were deemed to be the most successful,” Puentes said. “But those agencies are having a more difficult financial challenge because they relied on those passenger fares.”

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs the Metro system, is projecting a deficit of $750 million next year. General manager Randy Clarke says WMATA is weighing some deep cuts to service.

“If we do that, you’re talking, draconian. Like service, as we know it does not exist,” Clarke said in an interview. “Which then leads to less revenue for the system… Which then leads to more cuts, more cuts. And the whole thing falls apart.”

That’s known in the industry as a “death spiral.” But Clarke is hopeful that Metro will find the money to avoid that catastrophic scenario — and he’s not the only one who’s optimistic.

“There is a bit of a doom cloud that is hard to ignore, but I think things are better than we think,” said Lindiwe Rennert, a researcher at the non-profit Urban Institute who co-authored a new report on how public transit agencies can overcome the financial challenges they’re facing.

Transit systems that have a stable funding stream, often from local sales taxes, are doing better, Rennert says. And she argues there’s a strong case for that kind of funding, because mass transit benefits everybody — even if you never use it.

“The more other folks take the train, take the bus, the fewer cars are in your way as a driver. And that is simply a fact,” Rennert said.

Rennert notes that bus ridership is roughly back to where it was before the pandemic. And that the most nimble transit agencies — in systems in Richmond and Cincinnati and Tucson — have more riders now than before.

So does the light rail system in the Seattle area.

“We expanded the service. We’re reaching more people in more places. And so therefore, we have more riders,” said Julie Timm, the CEO of Sound Transit, one of the few rail systems in the country that’s seen a jump in ridership since 2019.

In fact, Sound Transit set ridership records over the summer when Seattle hosted Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game, and a stop on the Taylor Swift tour.

“What I think we’re seeing as a victory here in Seattle [is] a virtuous cycle of you put the funding in, you keep a reliable service and you see people use the service,” Timm said. “When they have those good experiences riding, they come back, they ride again.”

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.