Obama Seeks $94.7 Billion for DOT, Proposes Safety Oversight Office
This story appears in the Feb. 9 print edition of Transport Topics.
Safety and technology underpin the six-year surface transportation plan in President Obama’s $4 trillion fiscal 2016 budget.
The three major safety agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation — the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — are slated for spending increases, according to budget documents released last week and an agency official.
In addition, the $94.71 billion DOT-recommended budget calls for the creation of a new office of safety oversight.
“This office will have oversight over all safety-related activity in the department’s operating administrations and will focus on better integrating the safety activities across modes,” the DOT document said.
On technology, Assistant Secretary Gregory Winfree told reporters Feb. 3 that the department is keen on intelligent and connected vehicles and infrastructure.
“We’re no longer talking about the realm of the possible; this is within the realm of reality,” said Winfree, who runs DOT’s Office of Research and Technology.
Building on results from research by NHTSA and a demonstration with commercial trucks in Detroit last year, Winfree said, the administration wants to increase spending on DOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems program by 68% in fiscal 2016 to $158 million, up from $94 million in the current fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
Among the DOT safety agencies, FMCSA is budgeted for increases of 6.06% a year, on average, to $831 million in fiscal 2021 — the sixth and final year of the Grow America Act proposal — from $584 million currently.
The request is for both halves of the agency to grow: operations and programs, and safety grants.
At NHTSA, the request for the agency is that it will get annual increases averaging 4.5%, to $1.08 billion in fiscal 2021, up from $830 million currently. NHTSA also has two major segments: highway safety grants, and operations and research. Both are scheduled to grow.
PHMSA, a part of DOT not covered by Grow America, is supposed to get $288.7 million in fiscal 2016, up from $244.5 million this year.
The agency’s emphasis is on pipeline transmission and railcars hauling energy products, including crude oil or liquefied natural gas. Waste that might be contaminated with Ebola virus also was mentioned but not tank truck wetlines.
Two other federal divisions with a major effect on trucking are the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.
Combating climate change caused by greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, is one of EPA’s main priorities, the budget said. Lowering emissions from vehicles, including trucks, is a major part of the strategy.
The administration wants all of EPA to get $8.59 billion in fiscal 2016, up from $8.1 billion currently. Thirteen percent of that request, or $1.11 billion would go to air issues, including carbon dioxide.
The budget reiterated President Obama’s order from February 2014 that EPA and NHTSA produce a second-phase proposal on truck greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of March. The final rule is scheduled to take effect in March 2016.
The GHG rule will take precedence over Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grants. The budget says the retrofit grants should drop to $10 million in fiscal 2016 from the current annual rate of $30 million.
If the plan is enacted, EPA would have its largest annual budget since fiscal 2011.
The proposal also calls for DOE to get a 13.8% increase to $30 billion a year, starting Oct. 1.
The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office — the home to the SuperTruck research — is supposed to get $793 million in the coming year to use on sustainable transportation. Currently, it receives $686 million.
The major research topics there include vehicle technologies, hydrogen, and fuel cells and bioenergy.
Although the nation is awash in crude oil produced by hydraulic fracturing, there still is a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the administration wants to spend $257 million in the coming fiscal year for SPR management and facilities development. Currently, SPR gets $200 million.
The administration also wants to expand activities at the Energy Information Administration. The budget says EIA should gather information on electricity flows and oil production, as well as North American energy data, including information from Canada and Mexico.
EIA would get $131 million in fiscal 2016, up from $114 million now.
