The challenge of reducing artificial carbon emissions extends well beyond the ground, but thankfully technologies to address this problem are on the rise, quite literally. In early September 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) awarded more than $100 million to six airline-industry companies to continue development of aircraft technologies, which reduce fuel use, emissions, and noise. (FAA, CLEEN Program Awards). The awards were made to commence the third phase of the agency’s Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (“CLEEN”) program, which is the FAA’s primary sustaina ..read more

Colorado is known for its natural beauty and outdoor recreation. For every outdoor activity in Colorado, there’s a mountain, lake, or canyon; that is unless it involves a seaplane.   Colorado is the only state to prohibit seaplanes from floating, taking off, or landing on public waters. (Adam McCoy, Westword). Colorado Parks and Wildlife (“CPW”), the government body responsible for regulating Colorado’s public waters, sets policy on all parks and wildlife-related issues through an eleven-member commission. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife). In the 1980s, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commis ..read more

The Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) has launched a broad probe into the factory processes and safeguards of the Boeing Company’s (“Boeing") 787 Dreamliner (“Dreamliner”) production facilities. The probe will stretch back nearly a decade and comes in the wake of three separate quality-control lapses in the past year. (Cameron & Pasztor, Wall Street Journal). In an internal FAA memorandum (“Memo”) dated August 31, 2020, Boeing informed the FAA that certain parts produced at the Dreamliner factory in South Carolina had failed to meet the company’s design and manufacturing standards ..read more

Regulators grounded the 737 MAX on March 13, 2019, following two separate crashes that killed a total of 346 crew and passengers. (Chicago Tribune). Since then, Boeing’s top priority has been returning the 737 MAX to service. (Yahoo Finance). July 1st marked a major milestone in that goal as the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) completed certification flight tests on the updated aircraft. (FAA). As Boeing and regulators inch closer toward certification, several legal challenges represent a significant drag on the Washington State-based company. The 737 MAX became a liability for the com ..read more

Flags of Convenience (FOC) are a phenomenon that arose in the 20th century: vessels owned by persons in one country would no longer flag under their home nation, but instead flag in a foreign country.[1]  This action of “flagging out” to a foreign country is a form of regulatory forum shopping, premised on the ability for economic gain by the ship owners who are “flagging out.”[2]             While FOCs have typically been confined to ships, another common mode of transportation registers and operates in many similar ways: airplanes ..read more