Aviation industry in crosshairs for next biofuel push
WASHINGTON — Congress and the Biden administration aim to boost the use of sustainable fuels for the emissions-heavy aviation industry, setting up a new front for the debate over biofuels.
Sustainable aviation fuels, or SAF, made from a range of plants and other organic matter have proven successful as a replacement or additive for traditional, petroleum-based jet fuels. The Biden administration has thrown its support behind SAF, setting a goal for the U.S. to produce enough to meet 100 percent of jet fuel demand by 2050. The administration says such a conversion would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation by 50 percent.
NASA on Wednesday said it would partner with Boeing Co. to create a SAF-powered single-aisle aircraft.
Congress, in its 2022 climate, health care and tax package, included a tax credit of $1.25 per gallon for blenders using SAF. Appropriators also included $68 million in the fiscal 2023 government spending law to support carbon reduction efforts in the aviation industry, including provisions directing federal agencies to prioritize SAF research and development.
—CQ-Roll Call
Former FBI agent charged with taking payments, aiding oligarch
A retired FBI official was charged with working for the Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska in violation of U.S. sanctions and with taking $225,000 in cash from an unidentified employee of a foreign intelligence service.
Charles McGonigal, a former special agent in charge of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York, was charged with money laundering and violating U.S. sanctions against Russia, in an indictment unsealed Monday in New York. He was charged separately with falsification of records and making false statements, in a nine-count indictment unsealed in Washington.
McGonigal, 54, was arrested Saturday evening. Prosecutors claim he agreed to investigate a Russian rival of Deripaska in exchange for concealed payments. He’s expected to appear before a judge in Manhattan federal court on Monday afternoon.
A lawyer for McGonigal didn’t immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on the charges.
—Bloomberg News
UIC faculty and administration reach deal, ending 4-day strike; classes resume Monday
CHICAGO — After a nine-hour bargaining session Sunday — and months of negotiations — the University of Illinois at Chicago administration reached a tentative agreement with faculty and staff who had been on strike since last Tuesday.
UIC United Faculty, the union representing 1,500 tenure and nontenure faculty at UIC, has been bargaining since April for a new contract that ensures increased pay, more funding for student services and job security, and had worked without a contract since Aug. 16.
After the union failed to reach an agreement during a marathon bargaining session Jan. 16, union members headed to the picket lines Tuesday alongside students and organizers.
Charitianne Williams, the UICUF’s communications chair and an English lecturer at the school said the bargaining session on Sunday ended late into the night. “We’re very, very happy with the contract,” she said. “I got home a little around 1 a.m. I haven’t stayed up that late since I was in my 20s.”
—Chicago Tribune
Sweden’s NATO bid in doubt after Turkey's Erdogan refuses support
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out supporting Sweden’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, venting anger following a burning of Islam’s holy book in Stockholm over the weekend.
“If you cannot show this respect, then, sorry, but you will not see any support from us on the NATO issue,” Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara on Monday, without indicating whether or not that meant the door for negotiation was now closed.
“Those who promote and turn a blind eye to this perversion have undoubtedly taken into account its consequences,” he said. Erdogan’s comments render Sweden and neighboring Finland’s efforts to join NATO a more distant prospect, given the approval of Turkey’s parliament is required for the move to go ahead.
Twenty-eight of 30 NATO members have ratified the Nordic applications, and Hungary has said it plans to do so at the opening of parliament next month. That would leave Turkey as the lone holdout to the expansion, which NATO diplomats had hoped to finalize in time for the alliance’s summit in Vilnius in July.
—Bloomberg News
