US airlines under pressure to fly 'greener'
Industry opposes EU emissions plan
WASHINGTON -- Airlines and airplane makers have largely slipped under the radar in the debate over global warming.
But a dispute over a European emissions-trading proposal has caught many carriers and their trade groups by surprise, spurring them to launch a public-relations blitz highlighting their green bona fides, even if most of their work has been aimed at boosting their bottom lines.
Long a punching bag for consumer complaints and neighborhood protests over noise and poor air quality, the industry wants to avoid becoming a target on another front.
"People are looking across the Atlantic and seeing what is happening in Europe," said Nancy Young, the new vice president of environmental affairs at the Air Transport Association, US carriers' main trade group. "We know that it's coming here. . . . Aviation has lost the public square in this debate. We need to do a better job of letting people know that our environmental interests are directly aligned with our business interests."
Industry officials are quick to point out that commercial aviation contributes a very small percentage of the greenhouse gas and particle emissions that scientists blame for global warming. But they also acknowledge that aviation's impact could surge if the industry continues its worldwide growth spurt.
By 2050, the industry is expected to contribute anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of the gases and particles tied to global warming, up from about 3 percent today, said Michael Prather, a professor at the University of California at Irvine and lead author of a 1999 report on aviation's role in global warming for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Aviation's expansion has led to political problems for the industry in Europe, where there is increasing pressure to cut back on air travel, reduce airport expansion, and increase taxes on tickets.
In response, the European Union proposed rules that would require airlines serving domestic routes to enter into an emissions-trading scheme by 2011. Carriers flying to and from Europe, including US airlines, would have to enter the system by the following year. The plan is based on one already in operation for other European industries that buy and sell credits to emit certain amounts of carbon dioxide.
The United States and other nations plan to vigorously fight the proposal at an international meeting of aviation authorities in Montreal in September. They say it would drive up costs for airlines and violate the principle of air-service deals brokered between governments. Moreover, they say, Europe doesn't have the right to force carriers to buy credits for carbon dioxide emitted in US or international airspace.
"The emissions issue is real," said Marion Blakey, the FAA's administrator. "But we want to move forward on a global basis. To this point, the Europeans have shown no flexibility."
Some members of Congress are also skeptical of the European plan. Representative James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said he met in April with European leaders in Brussels and urged them to reconsider it.
"It's an invasion of our sovereignty," he said.
Oberstar said he would hold hearings on emissions trading. An FAA funding bill under consideration in the House has provisions dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, including the development of more fuel-efficient planes. 