SALEM—Oregon is on its way to creating a registry of government-owned drones, but uncertainty about federal regulations for the unmanned aircraft means any state registry for privately held drones could be more than a year away.
The Oregon Department of Aviation plans to deliver a report to lawmakers early next month on the feasibility of a state registry for private drones, and a lawmaker who reviewed a draft of the document said he expects the state will recommend against pursuing such a registry in 2015.
“There’s no need in being too anxious, because federal law is going to pre-empt state (law),” said Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, who sponsored a 2013 bill to regulate governments’ use of drones in Oregon.
Government agencies can currently obtain federal permits to use drones and the Federal Aviation Administration treats the small, recreational versions of the aircraft the same as model airplanes, said Collins Hemingway, president of the board of directors for the nonprofit Soar Oregon, which is dedicated to developing the industry.
That leaves out commercial drones, which the FAA has not authorized to operate in U.S. airspace outside of specific test ranges. The FAA expects to unveil a proposal to regulate small, commercial unmanned aircraft by the end of the year, and Hemingway said the federal agency might create its own drone registration system.
“If so, the state could end up having a registry but use the federal (identification) numbers,” Hemingway said. “That could be the simplest thing to do, if the state feels it needs to register them at all.”
The Oregon government drone registry was included in a 2013 bill that also established regulations on use of the aircraft by law enforcement and other government agencies. In addition to the registry, House Bill 2710 called for annual reports on government drone activity. The requirement to register government drones takes effect in January 2016.
The Oregon Department of Aviation was supposed to deliver its report on the status of federal regulation of drones and whether the state should create a private drone registry to the legislature by Nov. 1. Mitch Swecker, director of the Department of Aviation, said he provided a draft of the report to the office of Gov. John Kitzhaber for feedback, and he expects the report will be ready by the time lawmakers meet for three days of committee sessions starting Dec. 8.
The slow pace of federal regulation of unmanned aircraft systems or UAS has not dampened enthusiasm for the industry among some state lawmakers, who see it as a way to add more well-paying jobs.
The FAA approved three drone test sites in Oregon almost a year ago, as part of an effort requested by the U.S. Congress to safely integrate the vehicles into airspace. That could help convince lawmakers to approve potentially millions of dollars in 2015 to help boost development of the test sites in Tillamook, Warm Springs and Pendleton.
Soar Oregon received an $882,000 state economic development grant in the current biennium, and the group asked for $3.5 million in the two-year budget cycle that will begin in July 2015. Business Oregon, the state economic development agency, included the Soar Oregon request in the budget proposal it submitted to the governor, communications and marketing manager Nathan Buehler wrote in an email.
Huffman said he has already observed the economic impact of the unmanned aircraft industry in the Columbia River Gorge because his constituents include some of the approximately 850 people who work just north in Bingen, Washington, at the drone company Insitu Inc.
Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, said the three federal test ranges need help to build the infrastructure for drone testing.
“If we are thoughtful and careful about what we do, we could easily turn Oregon into the silicon sky, just as we turned it into the silicon forest,” said Johnson, who spent 20 years in the commercial aviation industry.
Source: www.capitalpress.com