EPA Proposes Bold New Aviation Emission Standards That The Airlines Already Meet

[hatrack]

he Trump administration on Wednesday made public the federal government’s first proposal to control planet-warming pollution from airplanes, but the draft regulation would not push the airlines beyond emissions limits they have set for themselves. President Trump is still pressing forward on his three-and-a-half-year rollback of environmental standards, and the proposed airline rule would stave off an impending lawsuit by putting the federal government in compliance with a legal requirement that it regulate airplane greenhouse emissions.

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Analysts and environmentalists said the neither the existing United Nations standard nor its formal adoption by the United States would do anything to lower aviation emissions because the airline industry met that standard years ago. “Those standards are just a joke,” said Clare Lakewood, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group. “They don’t require any meaningful emissions reductions.”

Daniel Rutherford, program director for aviation with the International Council for Clean Transportation, said the standard would not require any new investment in fuel-efficient technology. According to an upcoming analysis by Mr. Rutherford’s group, new aircraft had met the 2028 standard by 2016.

The future of the proposal will be determined by the results of the November election. It is unlikely that the rule will be finalized before the end of this year, and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has campaigned on a platform of aggressive climate action. If he wins the presidency, his administration would most likely ignore the Trump proposal and write a new, more stringent one.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/climate/airplanes-climate-change.html