Ed Crooks provides a good article in the New York Times about US moves to address the public health and welfare concerns about GHG emissions from aircraft. The US is seeking an international agreement rather than a domestic standard, and that seems to make sense.
US backs international regulations on aircraft emissions
The US is backing international regulations on carbon dioxide emissions from commercial aircraft after a formal finding that the gas contributes to global warming, officials said on Wednesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the US regulator, issued a proposed finding that greenhouses gases from aviation “endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations”, a move that, if confirmed, would provide a legal basis for regulations to curb emissions from aircraft.
However, the agency said the US would put those regulations in place only if international standards for emissions were agreed by the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation
Controls on greenhouse gases in aviation have been controversial in recent years, with the US joining emerging economies in protesting against the EU’s attempt to include foreign airlines in its emissions trading scheme.
The US move on aviation is the latest in a series of measures from the administration to curb greenhouse gases, including proposed controls on emissions from existing power plants, expected to be finalised in August. Limits for emissions from trucks were announced by President Barack Obama last year and are expected to be set out in detailed proposals soon.
Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, said that for aircraft the US favoured an international rather than a purely domestic standard.
“The US goal is to achieve a meaningful international standard, because that will achieve the most reductions [in emissions],” he said.
The new rules would apply to aircraft on domestic routes within the US as well as international flights, however.
Aircraft from the size of a six-passenger Cessna Citation up to the largest airlines would be covered, the EPA officials said, including private flights as well as scheduled services.
Airlines account for about 2 per cent of US greenhouse gas emissions, and about 11 per cent of emissions from transport. Cars and light trucks, which account for 60 per cent of US transport emissions, have been regulated since 2010.
The EPA expects that the ICAO will come up with international standards in February next year. The organisation’s 191 members would then be required to adopt rules that are at least as stringent.
If the ICAO agrees standards next year as expected, the EPA could follow with implementation proposals in the US in 2017, and then a final rule in 2018.
However, the proposed finding published on Wednesday made clear that there were many critical questions still up for debate, including whether the standards should apply only to new models or to all aircraft already in production, a timetable for implementation, and details of what the emissions limits would be.
Mr Grundler said the “meaningful” standard sought by the US should deliver genuine reductions in emissions.
In its proposed finding, the EPA observed that because aircraft types generally remained in production for decades, a standard that applied only to entirely new aircraft types would be likely to result in no significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions “even in the longer-term of 20 years-plus”.
Airlines for America, the industry association, supported the EPA’s commitment to international standards.
Nancy Young of A4A said: “Aviation is a global industry, making it critical that aircraft emissions standards continue to be agreed upon at the international level.”
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 