Environmental Protection Agency
Obama Wants to Make You to Fly the Carbon-Friendly Skies
New regs will not inconvenience Paris climate conference attendees in December
The Environmental Protection Agency is issuing a scientific finding the emissions from aircraft boost global warming and thus endanger the health of Americans. As result the agency is asserting authority to regulate (reduce) such emissions. Reuters reports:
An "endangerment finding" by the Environmental Protection Agency would allow the administration to implement a global carbon dioxide emissions standard being developed by the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization. …
The ICAO is due to release its CO2 standard for comment in February 2016, with the aim of adopting it later that year. But the requirement is expected to apply only to new aircraft designs certified from 2020, leaving most of the world's existing fleets unaffected for years to come.
Aviation accounted for 11 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector in 2010 in the United States, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
On the other hand, I earlier reported a recent University of Michigan study that found that airline travel—considering how much fuel it takes to transport a person a given distance—is much more fuel efficient than automobile travel.
I also noted that those folks especially worried about their carbon sins can always buy carbon indulgences.
In any case, the new EPA regulations will not be adopted in time to inconvenience the diplomats and activists who need to fly over the pond to attend the big United Nations climate change conference in Paris this December.