Department of Transportation May 5, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in cooperation with the United States Air Force (USAF), prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) to evaluate the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA) proposal to operate a commercial launch facility at the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark (CSIA) located adjacent to the town of Burns Flat, Oklahoma. The EA evaluated the potential environmental impacts of launches of three types of horizontally launched suborbital vehicles (Concept X, Concept Y, and Concept Z) proposed to be launched from the CSIA. The EA also evaluated the transfer of ownership of the CSIA from the City of Clinton to OSIDA. After reviewing and analyzing currently available data and information on existing conditions, project impacts, and measures to mitigate those impacts, the FAA, Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) has determined that issuing a launch site operator license to OSDIA for the CSIA would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The FAA also determined that the transfer of ownership of the CSIA from Clinton, Oklahoma to OSIDA would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment within the meaning of NEPA. Therefore the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not required and AST is issuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The FAA made this determination in accordance with all applicable environmental laws. For a Copy of the Environmental Assessment: Visit one of the following Internet addresses: https://www.okspaceporteis.com or https:// ast.faa.gov, or contact Mr. Doug Graham, FAA Environmental Specialist, 800 Independence Avenue, SW., Room 331, Washington, DC 20591. You may also send e-mail requests to doug.graham@faa.gov or via telephone (202) 267-8568.

The FAA proposes to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Boeing Model 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, and -900 series airplanes. This proposed AD would require testing the electrical resistance of the bond between the bulkhead fitting for the fuel feed line and the front spar of the left and right wings, inspecting an adjacent bonding jumper to make sure it is installed correctly, and performing corrective and other specified actions as applicable. This proposed AD results from fuel system reviews conducted by the manufacturer. We are proposing this AD to prevent arcing or sparking in the fuel tank in the event of a lightning strike, which could result in an uncontrolled fire or explosion.

The Coast Guard and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) announce that they have received an application for the licensing of a natural gas deepwater port, and that the application appears to contain the required information. This notice summarizes the applicant's plans and the procedures that will be followed in considering the application.

FRA announces the next meeting of the RSAC, a Federal Advisory Committee that develops railroad safety regulations through a consensus process. The RSAC meeting topics include opening remarks from the FRA Administrator, a discussion panel on lessons learned during the ten years RSAC has existed, and the report on the Safety of Remote Control Locomotive Operations. Status reports will be given on the Passenger Safety, Roadway Worker, Continuous Welded Rail, and Locomotive Standards working groups. The Committee will be asked to vote to accept a task on railroad security.

The FAA's Aircraft Certification Service publishes proposed non-regulatory documents that are available for public comment on the Internet at https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/draftdocs/.

The Department is seeking additional comments on our proposal to clarify policies that it may use to evaluate air carriers' citizenship during initial and continuing fitness reviews. Our proposal would affect how we determine ``actual control'' of the carrier in situations where the foreign investor's home country has an open skies air services agreement with the United States, and permits reciprocal investment opportunities in its own national air carriers for U.S. investors. We continue to believe that our proposed policy would remove unnecessary restrictions on U.S. air carriers' access to the global capital market without compromising the statutory requirement that U.S. citizens remain in actual control of such carriers. We are issuing a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) because, after reviewing comments submitted on the NPRM and in consultation with other Executive Branch agencies, we have decided to strengthen the proposal in several areas. We have revised the proposed rule further to ensure that U.S. citizens will have actual control of the air carrier. We are also mindful of the strong interest in this proposal expressed by members of Congress. This SNPRM will furnish Congress the opportunity to review the proposal in its refined form, and to undertake a more informed assessment of its likely consequences. Our NPRM proposal would allow for delegation to foreign investors of decision-making authority regarding commercial issues, but in the areas of organizational documents, safety, security, and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program the NPRM would not permit these delegations. In a key refinement of our original proposal, we now propose in this SNPRM to require that any such delegation of authority to foreign interests by the U.S. citizen majority owners be revocable. We are proposing this change to ensure that, notwithstanding their ability to delegate decision-making authority over certain commercial matters (as described in the NPRM) to foreign investor interests, the U.S. voting shareholders of a U.S. airline will retain actual control of the airline. We originally proposed to reserve exclusively to U.S. citizens decisions relating to organizational documents, safety, security, and CRAF. In another refinement, in keeping with suggestions received from the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense as well as the Federal Aviation Administration, we are now proposing to broaden the scope of the decision-making that must remain under the actual control of U.S. citizens. The aspects of control of safety and security decisions would no longer be limited to those implementing FAA and TSA safety and security regulations, but would cover safety and security decisions generally. Similarly, the proposed control of CRAF decisions would be expanded to cover all national defense airlift commitments. Our proposed expansion of the coverage of these three areas will ensure that all critical elements of a carrier's decision-making that could impact safety, security, and national defense airlift are fully covered, and that our review of a carrier's compliance with these requirements will not be unduly narrow. We tentatively conclude that, as modified, this proposal will eliminate unnecessary and anachronistic limitations on the ability of eligible foreign minority investors to participate in the commercial decision-making at a U.S. airline in which they have made an otherwise statutorily-permitted investment. At the same time, it should eliminate any doubt that the voting stockholders (75 percent of whom are U.S. citizens) and the board of directors (two-thirds of whom are U.S. citizens) will retain full control over decisions regarding safety, security, and contributions to our national defense airlift capability, and that those U.S. citizens also retain ``actual control'' of the carrier as a whole as required by statute.