Tag: federal government

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14 fast-charging stations for electric vehicles go into operation

Posted on Thomas B. Stewart

Fourteen new vehicle DC Fast Charging stations funded by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control have gone into service.

Grants were awarded to several businesses and one Delaware municipality. The chargers will be accessible to the public 24 hours a day and users will pay a fee for powering their vehicles.

The 14 project locations represent a variety of charging location types and manufacturers and are located throughout the state.

The projects selected for funding will be in downtown areas, shopping centers, hotels and traditional fueling areas.

“These charging stations represent the first wave of major investments in Delaware to build out a network of reliable and convenient fast electric vehicle charging stations for our residents and visitors” said Shawn M. Garvin, DNREC Secretary. “It doesn’t stop here. DNREC and DelDOT are working together on an electric vehicle infrastructure plan that will guide future investments and programs to ensure a smooth transition to a cleaner, more equitable transportation system.”

Transportation is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Delaware, according to DNREC. Building out the state’s charging network will accommodate the growing number of electric vehicle.

The funding builds upon Delaware Clean Transportation Incentive Programs, which include rebates for light-duty vehicles and Level 2 charging stations. Funding for the DC Fast Charging Stations comes from the Environmental Mitigation Trust, a negotiated settlement between Volkswagen and the federal government.

The installations come amid a controversy over a plan to end sales of gas-powered vehicles in 2035. Republican legislators are leading the charge to halt the ban, which would also require dealers to have more than a third of their new vehicles on the lot to be EVs. Court challenges are also expected.

Electric vebicles, other than vehicles from Tesla, have been in short supply and are

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Why paying a fee lets you skip airport security line

Posted on Thomas B. Stewart

Airport security lines are almost a given when traveling.

The Sept. 11 attacks led to the creation of government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, and federal regulations tightened up security in the aftermath.

Since then, how people get through security has continued to evolve. While they have figured out how to use state-of-the-art scanners and other technology, one very visible problem has stuck around.

“Here we are, 22 some odd years later, where we’re still trying to figure out how to keep the line short,” said Jeff Price, a professor of aviation at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “We’re still trying to figure out how to keep them moving. A lot of people don’t understand that moving the lines quickly is not just a efficiency function and a passenger experience element; it’s also a security element because the more passengers I have packed into a public area waiting to go through the screening process, the more vulnerable I am to things like suicide bombers, active shooters.”

Price knows this firsthand from his past experience as an assistant security director at Denver International Airport and as a manager of a smaller regional airport. He told Scripps News there are a few distinctions within security.

Most airports rely on the TSA to administer the process. A handful, including San Francisco and Kansas City, rely on private contractors, but they all adhere to tight TSA guidelines, making them all look the same in operation.

But the lines can look very different depending on the airport and how much a person is willing to pay.

SEE MORE: Record number of guns seized by TSA: Here’s which airports fared worst

Airport security lines now have multiple, tiered options for getting through.

There’s the regular line

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TSA to hire more officers in Des Moines through job fair

Posted on Thomas B. Stewart

TSA aims to hire more transportation security officers in anticipation of heightened travel. The job fair will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday in West Des Moines.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — TSA at the Des Moines International Airport wants to make sure it can keep up with what they are calling rising travel demands. 

Jessica Mayle, the regional spokesperson for TSA, said in preparation for that increase the agency is hosting a hiring event to bring on more Transportation Security Officers(TSO). 

Mayle said the agency does not have an exact number of people they want to hire, but they want to hire enough to make sure flyers’ wait times don’t increase. 

The spokesperson said currently the average wait time for a flyer to pass through TSA pre-check in Des Moines is under 10 minutes and the wait for non-pre-check is under 30 minutes.

Mayle said to keep those numbers low, as air travel is expected to increase, now is the time for them to get more TSO prepared.

RELATED: New federal program may provide Iowa $51 million to improve electric vehicle infrastructure

She noted one of the ways they are trying to appeal to potential employees in this market is by reminding them, that being a TSO is a federal government job. 

“We are trying to be competitive and what could we offer that a lot of these private employers can’t, and that’s security that comes with a federal job,” Mayle said. “[It] is virtually recession-proof. A lot of people were losing their jobs in the pandemic and that doesn’t happen with TSA or federal government, generally.”

People who come to the hiring event will receive a presentation about the job as well as an opportunity to complete parts of the hiring process.

Starting pay is $18.65

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