Cute, but polluting.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a 194-page
endangerment finding Wednesday saying that airplanes' carbon dioxide emissions are a menace to public health. It's the first step in what will be a years long process creating a rule to reduce the American planes' emissions, which make up 29 percent of worldwide CO
2 emissions from airplanes. Planetwide airplane emissions count for 0.5 percent of the total from all sources.
The EPA stated in a release that the move was "a preliminary but necessary first step to begin to address greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector, the highest-emitting category of transportation sources that the EPA has not yet addressed."
In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA is not merely allowed, but obligated under the Clean Air Act to regulate pollution that is constitutes public health problems. The agency has found CO2 emissions are such a problem.
The endangerment finding is one of several steps the Obama administration plans to take this summer to curb greenhouse gas emissions. These include final rules on emissions from power plants—which are certain to end up shuttering more coal-fired plants if lawsuits and other attacks don't block the action—emission limits on trucks and, eventually, restrictions on airplane emissions. The latter will unlikely be finalized until a new president occupies the White House.
Head below the fold for more on the fight to come.
Every step of the way, conservatives can be expected to fight limits on emissions, which at least some of them don't believe have anything to do with climate change. Via Twitter, Arksansas Sen. Tom Cotton spoke for the troglodytes Wednesday:
In addition to some of the usual foes, any emissions limits on planes will generate opposition from the powerful airline industry lobby.
Alex Guillén at Politico notes that the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations body, plans to set international limits on plane emissions in 2016. The EPA stated that its finding is “part of preparing for a possible subsequent domestic rulemaking process to adopt standards that are of at least equivalent stringency as the anticipated ICAO CO2 standards.” The industry wants a global standard, not a country-by-country patchwork of regulations.
Some environmentalists are not convinced. They:
... fear that the international targets will lead to only small reductions in global aviation emissions, particularly given that ICAO is generally considering only changes to newly designed aircraft engines, not retrofits to the existing fleet or designs already in production. Since aircraft remain in service for decades, emissions reductions would come slowly under that approach.
Like proposals for other emissions cuts, this one demands scrutiny. Will it be real or mere window-dressing?