Jet engine exhaust from airliners endangers human health and adds to climate change, the government found Monday in taking the first step toward regulating those emissions.
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Jet engines spew significant amounts of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, into the upper atmosphere, where they trap heat from the sun.
ICCT’s Dan Rutherford said fuel burn of new aircraft designs can be reduced by 25 percent by 2024, three times what is required by the proposed ICAO standard.
The EPA indicated the possibility of a “subsequent domestic rulemaking process to adopt standards that are of at least equivalent stringency as the anticipated [International Civil Aviation Organization] CO2 standards”.
The endangerment finding triggers the EPA to start a rule- making process for greenhouse gas emission standard for aircraft.
Aircraft account for 3 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and US aircraft produce 0.5 percent of emissions worldwide.
“Aircraft are the third largest contributor to GHG emissions in the USA transportation sector, and these emissions are expected to increase in the future”, EPA acting assistant administrator for air and radiation Janet McCabe said in a statement.
In February, after six years of talks, the ICAO agreed on a global standard aimed at makers of small and large planes that will apply to all new aircraft models launched after 2020. The EPA acted after a coalition of environmental organizations filed notice of their intent to sue the agency over its inaction. “The Obama administration must quickly devise ambitious aircraft pollution rules that dramatically reduce this high-flying hazard to our climate”.
From the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the century, US passenger airline consumption of gas has doubled to almost 20 billion gallons annually, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
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The agency is not yet ready to issue emissions standards for aircraft engines, but that will come, now that it has determined that those engines contribute to climate change. While carbon emissions from land-based sources are largely in decline, pollution from airplanes is projected to triple by 2050 without stricter limits.
