The Environmental Protection Agency has, for the first time, established carbon emissions standards for aircraft engines, adopting global climate rules the Obama administration helped negotiate.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, in a statement, touted the new rule as a “historic action” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“This is the fourth concrete final regulation the Trump Administration’s pragmatic approach to climate action has produced meaningful results without unnecessarily sacrificing American jobs or important domestic industries like our aircraft manufacturers,” Wheeler said.
Other Trump EPA actions weakened Obama-era regulations limiting carbon dioxide from power plants, setting fuel economy standards for passenger cars, and reducing the potent greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas operations.
The EPA’s aircraft rule, like its proposal, mirrors global greenhouse gas standards for new aircraft engines, using a fuel efficiency metric to encourage reductions in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. The International Civil Aviation Organization, of which more than 190 countries are members, adopted those limits in 2017 in a deal supported by major U.S. aircraft manufacturers.
The EPA, in its final rule, says adopting the ICAO limits “reflect U.S. efforts to secure the highest practicable degree of international uniformity in aviation regulations and standards.” The agency also said many airplanes manufactured in the United States already meet the standards.
However, environmentalists and a dozen state attorneys general had urged the EPA to tighten the aircraft standards, arguing the agency’s rule wouldn’t do much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from engines beyond business-as-usual.
The ICAO standards “lag existing technology by more than 10 years,” wrote 12 attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, in comments to the EPA in October. “In fact, the EPA has not even considered any form of emission control that would reduce GHGs, despite the agency’s determination that these emissions endanger public health and welfare.”
Environmentalists are calling on the Biden administration to tighten the aircraft engine standards.
“This do-nothing rule is totally inadequate in light of the climate crisis,” said Annie Petsonk, an international counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, in a statement.
“That the EPA’s rule is being finalized concomitantly with Congress issuing another multi-billion-dollar COVID-19 rescue package for airlines — with no enforceable requirements for airlines to improve their environmental performance — underscores the need for swift regulatory action by the next administration so that airlines put climate at the core of their recovery and build back better,” she said.
