Greenhouse gas emissions from domestic commercial aviation have fallen 13 percent between 2000 and 2006, according to recently released figures from the Environmental Protection Agency. I blogged about a USA Today article on this report last week, and I finally tracked down the original, cleverly obscured on the EPA website. (The aviation-relevant sections are here [...]
Read Full Post »
According to an article in USA Today, an EPA report indicates that the U.S. commercial aviation industry, despite having expanded substantially since 2000, has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent. I’m trying to track down the EPA report (which is not readily available online) to probe these numbers further.
These findings dovetail with [...]
Read Full Post »
The House Aviation Subcommittee is holding a hearing today on the environmental impact of aviation, especially emissions. I won’t be able to cover the entire session, but I’ll give you what I can.
Representative Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) offers his opening statement. He emphasizes that the need to reduce emissions is a corollary of the need to [...]
Read Full Post »
The Internet is abuzz about the latest example of “eco- scandalous” airline behavior. An American Airlines flight from Chicago to London flew February 9 with only five passengers, using — reportedly — 22,000 gallons of Jet A. Why is this causing an uproar? The advocacy group Friends of the Earth considers it an “obscene waste [...]
Read Full Post »
“Higher P, lower Q.”
Hat-tip to Daniel Hall, who writes: “I think Tyler is being cheeky here.”
Read Full Post »
Posted in Evan's Debates, tagged aerospace, asia, competition, europe, green, nationalism, open skies, prestige, regulation, usa, world on December 12, 2007 | No Comments »
My exchange with Daniel Hall earlier this week made it onto The Economist’s Free Exchange, which was in turn picked up by Megan McArdle’s Asymmetrical Information.
The Economist writer brings in the intervention dimension:
[S]o politicised an industry as air travel need not fear dislocations in any case; governments would react incredibly quickly to pull back on [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Evan's Debates, tagged green, regulation, tax on December 10, 2007 | No Comments »
Returning to these posts and this article, I think I need to clarify and reframe my comments. First, Daniel is right that increasing the cost of carbon-based fuels will drive innovation in more fuel-efficient technologies. It did just that: in the late ’90s, Boeing pitched a fuel-wasting concept, the Sonic Cruiser. Airlines were standoffish at [...]
Read Full Post »
Via Things with Wings:
Read Full Post »
Update on this post is here.
Daniel Hall at Common Tragedies has responded to my request for economic analysis. I was really wondering about the effects of different types of regulation–say, a mandate for minimum fuel-efficiency standards versus an overall greenhouse gas cap or tax. He writes, “I’m skeptical there’s much room in the aircraft market [...]
Read Full Post »
Several states filed a petition with the EPA today asking it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft. The article did not specify whether the states want a carbon tax, cap-and-trade system, or some blend of the two, but it does say that the states want the EPA to use its rulemaking authority to “requir[e] [...]
Read Full Post »
