Foreign Lobbyists Fight Air Safety Proposal for Lithium Battery Shipments

An Obama administration proposal to designate lithium batteries as hazardous cargo has sparked an intense lobbying effort, and has brought the government into conflict with many staunch allies and close trading partners.

As the Associated Press reports, China, Israel, Japan, and the European Union have all lined up against the U.S. plan to reclassify the batteries, saying it would raise shipping costs for popular commercial goods such as cellphones and laptops.

Administration officials say that the worry is misguided, estimating that the regulations would impose costs of only $9 million per year. Concern about the batteries stems from their tendency to short-circuit and catch fire during flight, which results in blazes that are both very hot and difficult to extinguish. A United Parcel Service cargo plane crashed in Dubai in September, after an onboard fire that investigators believe was either sparked or exacerbated by lithium hp compaq business notebook nx5000 battery.


But foreign government officials and industry leaders say that the U.S. plan unilaterally imposes standards that would raise costs more than the U.S. is letting on and also create logistical headaches. Israeli diplomat Ohad Cohen told the AP that it’s better to work through international organizations rather than for one country to “impose a big impediment for trade.”

The proposal has sparked an intense lobbying effort by the countries and industries that would bear the brunt of the new costs. For instance, the French battery-maker SAFT hired former U.S. Transportation Department official David Kunz, who until 2009 served as chief counsel of the division that wrote the regulations, as one of their lobbyists.

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SAFT is also building a factory in Jacksonville, Fla., just outside of the district of Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the incoming chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

While originally written by the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the regulations are currently in the hands of the Office of Management and Budget. The final review of the proposal is now expected to be delayed for weeks or even months because of the pressure.

Read more: How to Handle Your Notebook’s Batteries to Avoid Overheating