US Plans to Adopt Global Climate Standards For Airlines, Much to the Chagrin of Environmental Groups

The Trump administration said Wednesday that it plans to adopt aircraft emissions standards modelled on international ones, a move it says will not further reduce climate-damaging emissions from planes.

Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the change “strikes the right regulatory balance" and would ensure that U.S.-made airliners and large business jets meet the demands of the global market.

Environmental groups, which had threatened to sue EPA over delays in setting greenhouse gas limits for aviation, said the agency's proposal does not go far enough.

The Center for Biological Diversity called it “toothless." The rules “are too weak to address the severity of the climate crisis," said Clare Lockwood, the group's climate legal director.

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Another environmental group, the International Council on Clean Transportation, said the standard is already out of date and won't speed investment in more fuel-efficient engines and planes.

The average new plane delivered last year was already 6 per cent more fuel-efficient than EPA's rules would require in 2028, said Sola Zheng, lead author of an upcoming study by the group.