The New Transportation Secretary May Be Worse Than Norm Mineta

This is a really bad decision, as described in a Wall Street Journal editorial last Saturday (requires subscription): The Department of Transportation has decided that the US is not “Virgin territory,” even when the company’s American subsidiary has complied with ownership rules:

….. barely a month ago DOT seemed to be in the process of relaxing antiquated rules that require that U.S.-based airlines be 75% U.S.-owned or “controlled.” But under pressure from airline unions and protectionist-minded U.S. carriers, new Transportation Secretary Mary Peters put a stop to that policy shift. And now DOT says that although Virgin America was structured to comply with the 75% rule, “Virgin America’s close relationship with the U.K.-based Virgin Group indicates that the carrier is not under the actual control of U.S. citizens.”

So DOT is telepathic too.

Even Norm Mineta, for all his considerable faults, didn’t claim those powers.

Continuing:

….. In addition to the consumers who won’t benefit if Virgin America doesn’t get the go-ahead, there’s also the matter of the 3,000 jobs Virgin America wants to create at its planned San Francisco hub.

Virgin America has until January 10 to respond to DOT’s complaints, and it says it plans to. But we’d also be curious to hear what interested lawmakers such as California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein think about the issue.

So would I. That’s a lot of jobs for those two to blow off — especially because they are both fond of telling us how the Bush 4.5%-unemployment economy is supposedly not creating enough of them as it is.

UPDATE: Given her self-proclaimed status as “Most Powerful Woman in America” (HT Drudge) and as congressperson in the general area, perhaps even for the district that includes San Fran’s airport, it would be interesting to see how interested Nancy Pelosi might be in these 3,000 jobs.