Build Back Better

Billions in port grants rolled into Democrats’ inflation bill

Container terminal at Port of Houston.

Billions of dollars in federal grants aimed at reducing air pollution at seaports are included in the Democrats’ inflation bill with the caveat that the money cannot be used to automate container terminals.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, announced last week by Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is a pared down version of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” package introduced last year but never passed.

The new version, which backers say will...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/billions-in-port-grants-rolled-into-democrats-inflation-bill

Government impact on the electric vehicle landscape — Transmission

Earlier this year, Boston Consulting Group released a report called “Why Electric Cars Can’t Come Fast Enough.”

Now that the COP26 climate change conference is in the rearview mirror and the Build Back Better bill is potentially about to pass, Sebastian Blanco welcomes BCG’s Nathan Niese to the Transmission stage. 

They chat about what the conference and the pending legislation might do to the electric vehicle market across the world and about how government intervention, including regulation,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/government-impact-on-the-electric-vehicle-landscape-transmission

Auto suppliers red-flag port automation on FMC agenda

Anti-automation sentiment from dockworkers and pending legislation discouraging the practice at container terminals should be enough to prioritize the issue on the Federal Maritime Commission’s agenda, a shipper adviser told agency officials Wednesday.

Speaking at the December meeting of the FMC’s National Shipper Advisory Committee (NSAC), Steven Hughes, who represents the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association on the panel, said the recent developments on automation could hamper progress...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/auto-suppliers-red-flag-port-automation-on-fmc-agenda

How does Biden’s Build Back Better plan affect freight?

John Porcari, the port envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, was asked this week for his long-term assessment of the U.S. supply chain.

“The pandemic laid bare a system that creaks along in the best of circumstances,” Porcari said. “We have an unprecedented opportunity here with the bipartisan infrastructure law and with Build Back Better to build a goods movement system that will serve our children and grandchildren. We really need to make some long-term structural...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-does-bidens-build-back-better-plan-affect-freight

Biden spotlights computer chip shortage on visit to Mack Trucks plant

President Joe Biden highlighted a production problem that Mack Trucks and other truck manufacturers have been facing this year because of a global shortage of computer chips that enable engine operations.

On a tour of Mack Trucks’ assembly plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Biden was told that the manufacturer was struggling to find the chips needed for engine assembly.

“We basically don’t make them anymore in America,” Biden said during a speech following the tour. “So I got together...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/biden-spotlights-computer-chip-shortage-on-visit-to-mack-trucks-plant

Republicans to White House: Limit infrastructure spending to roads and bridges

As the Biden administration looks ahead to the “recovery” portion of its Build Back Better plan while the $1.9 billion COVID-19 relief bill is considered in the Senate, Republicans are drawing a line across the road when it comes to infrastructure investment.

After a White House meeting Thursday that included President Joe Biden and Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Missouri, the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/republicans-to-white-house:-limit-infrastructure-spending-to-roads-and-bridges

Biden’s plan to energize last-mile road safety

When President Joe Biden unveiled his $1.3 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan during the 2020 presidential campaign, he emphasized technologies that could be used by state and local governments to reduce accidents, such as vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and connected intersections. He also vowed to work with Congress to increase federal funding for safety initiatives like the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP).

Now that Pete Buttigieg has been confirmed as secretary of the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bidens-plan-to-energize-last-mile-road-safety

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