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FAA offers $20.4 million in grants to airports for using zero-emissions vehicles

24 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

The FAA is announcing $20.4 million in grants to airports for using zero-emissions vehicles and electrifying equipment that currently relies on fossil fuels.

Why it matters: While next-wave, future aviation/aircraft techgets lots of attention, nuts and bolts equipment at airports is decidedly low-tech (think diesel generators and dirty shuttle buses) and ripe for the deployment of existing and mature low-emissions systems.

Driving the news: The funding announcement Tuesday, provided first to Axios, is part of $300 million being spent on zero-emissions and electrification projects out of the FAA’s $3.5 billion airport grant program for 2021, an FAA spokesperson told Axios via email.

The big picture: Modern airports, at least in the U.S., still use antiquated technology to service aircraft and move people and luggage around.

  • Airports are sizable sources of smog-forming emissions and greenhouse gases, and also have environmental justice implications.

Details: Per FAA, this year the administration has awarded grants to 56 airports to purchase zero-emission vehicles and for electrification projects, using money from the American Rescue Plan and preexisting grant programs.

By the numbers: Within the round announced today is $5.9 million for zero-emission vehicle purchases, which includes:

  • $3.9 million for the purchase of a fleet of five 35-foot electric shuttle buses at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
  • $1 million for a 35-foot electric shuttle bus and charging station at John Wayne Airport, Orange County in California.

Today’s grants also include $14.5 million to reduce airport and ramp equipment emissions, such as:

  • $4.6 million to purchase and install 18 pre-conditioned air units at Pittsburgh International Airport. These are used to provide temperature-controlled air inside a plane when the plane’s own power systems are off.
  • $3.9 million will go to San Diego International Airport to buy and install 39 charging stations to charge up electric ground support equipment that service aircraft in between their flights.

Funds will also help airports purchase electric mobile ground power units that help run a plane’s electrical equipment.

  • Money for these will go to Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana, Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif., and St. Louis Lambert International Airport, among others.

Yes, but: Focusing grant programs on zero-emissions technologies and rewiring airport infrastructure could pay off by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and smog-forming pollutants, but it will take a lot more money on a faster timeline to make a difference when viewed across the growing aviation sector.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.