EPA Proposes Do-Nothing Standards for Climate Pollution from Airplanes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new aircraft. The Trump administration’s EPA has issued the proposal because without the standards, American airplanes would be barred from flying in international airspace.

Aviation is among the fastest growing sources of climate pollution, yet the EPA’s proposal would merely adopt entirely ineffective standards for 2028. Since planes built in 2016 were already meeting 2028 standards, adopting these standards produces no climate benefit at all. The EPA’s proposed standards would leave the United States more than 10 years behind the technology curve. 

A 2015 study showed that existing technologies could cost-effectively reduce emissions by approximately 25% in 2024 and 40% in 2034.

In response to the proposed rule, Sierra Club’s Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding released the following statement:

“In the face of an increasingly dire climate crisis, these proposed standards cynically propose weaker outcomes than what business-as-usual already achieved in 2016. Once again, former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler is putting industry interests over the public interest in a safe and healthy climate by proposing a rule that does nothing at all to curb pollution from airplanes, on the heels of his rollback of clean car standards and in the middle of a pandemic.

“Airlines have already grabbed tens of billions in pandemic bailout money from taxpayers without making any concessions whatsoever toward reducing their destructive climate impact - which will only increase over the decades to come. Aircraft manufacturers cannot hide behind the pandemic to resist adopting feasible, cost-effective technical improvements that already exist.”