US government departments and agencies have joined with the aviation and fuel sectors to agree a stimulus package to put US aviation on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It includes new and ongoing funding opportunities to support sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects and fuel producers totalling up to $4.3 billion in efforts to boost production of SAF to at least 3 billion gallons per year by 2030 under a ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge’ initiative. Through their trade body A4A, US airlines pledged in March to work towards making 2 billion gallons of SAF available by 2030 but are now increasing that goal by an additional 50%. The Biden administration also announced its backing for a SAF tax credit to incentivise and scale up production as part of its Build Back Better green agenda. Also announced were an increase in R&D activities on new technologies to spur developments in aircraft fuel efficiency and efforts to improve air traffic and airport efficiency. The administration said it would be strengthening its aviation and climate change leadership internationally and will support the adoption at ICAO of a long-term aspirational goal for reducing aviation emissions.

“President Biden is taking steps to coordinate leadership and innovation across the federal government, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers, airports and non-governmental organisations to advance the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in American aviation,” said a White House fact sheet released after a roundtable on sustainable aviation held on September 9. “These new agency steps and industry partnerships will transform the aviation sector, create good-paying jobs, support American agriculture and manufacturing, and help us tackle the climate crisis.”

Responded A4A President Nicholas Calio, who attended the White House meeting: “We are proud of our record on climate change, but we know the climate change challenge has only continued to intensify. Accordingly, A4A member carriers have embraced the need to take even bolder, more significant steps to address the climate crisis.”

Commercial flights contribute 11% of US transportation-related emissions and 2% of the nation’s total. “Without increased action, aviation’s share of emissions is likely to increase as more people and goods fly. That is why leadership and innovation in this sector is so essential if we hope to put the aviation industry, and the economy on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” says the Biden administration.

“Achieving a sustainable aviation industry requires energy efficiency improvements in aircraft technology and better operations. In the future, electric and hydrogen-powered aviation may unlock affordable and convenient local and regional travel. But for today’s long-distance travel, we need bold partnerships to spur the deployment of billions of gallons of sustainable aviation fuels quickly.”

Current levels of domestic SAF production are around 4.5 million gallons per year. Jet fuel consumption from domestic and outgoing international flights totalled 19.2 billion gallons in 2019, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, still lower than peak consumption years but had been edging up since 2015 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. A 3-billion-gallon goal therefore represents a 15% share of total jet fuel consumption being taken up by SAF in 2030, if based on 2019. The actions taken, says the administration, will enable aviation emissions to drop 20% by 2030 when compared to business as usual if the goal is met.

The proposed SAF tax credit requires a minimum 50% reduction in lifecycle GHG emissions and so offers an increased incentive for greater reductions. The Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are to support SAF producers through the new Grand Challenge initiative in order to work with stakeholders to reduce costs, enhance sustainability and expand production and use of SAF that meets the 50% lifecycle reduction. In addition to the 2030 goal, the target is to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand with SAF by 2050, which is currently projected to be around 35 billion gallons per year. In a series of actions to be taken:

• USDA will support US farmers with climate-smart agriculture practices and research, including biomass feedstock genetic development, sustainable crop and forest management at scale, and post-harvest supply chain logistics. USDA will also support fuel producers with carbon modelling components of aviation biofuel feedstocks.
• The Environmental Protection Agency and DOE will collaborate to identify data collection needs, assess technical information and take other steps designed to expedite the regulatory approval process to support newly developed fuels and feedstocks that might be viable for inclusion as able to generate Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) under renewable fuel in the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard programme.
• The FAA will make 14 grant awards with FY21 funds to the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT) totalling more than $3.6 million. This will support the SAF approval clearing house in conducting evaluation testing to ensure that new fuels are safe for use.

Other funding initiatives include the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office’s already announced $35 million for 11 projects developing feedstock and algae technologies for advancing the domestic bioeconomy, plus a new additional $61 million to advance biofuels and support the reduced cost of SAF pathways, including 11 projects that are scaling up promising technologies to produce SAF. The DOE is also offering up to $3 billion in loan guarantees, with commercial-scale SAF projects that utilise innovative technology and avoid, reduce or sequester GHG emissions and meet other requirements potentially eligible. Department of Defense (DOD) funding, subject to appropriations, is to be made available to certify the use of up to four additional SAF pathways already approved in the commercial market, as well as additional SAF pathways in the ASTM approval pipeline for military aircraft.

Further initiatives, collaborations and funding have been announced by NASA, FAA, DOD and DOE to achieve at least a 30% improvement in aircraft fuel efficiency, improving air traffic and airport efficiency to reduce fuel use, eliminate lead exposure and ensure cleaner air in and around airports.

The administration says it plans to release an aviation climate action plan in the coming months. It also commits the United States “to asserting positive leadership on aviation and climate change.

Adds the White House statement: “As a country, we will re-establish US credibility through ambitious domestic commitments and realistic action plans for implementing those commitments, demonstrate leadership on aviation ambition at the International Civil Aviation Organization by showing the world by implementing CORSIA transparently and effectively, and supporting adoption of a long-term aspirational goal for reducing aviation emissions. We will also engage with bilateral and regional partners to forge a diverse coalition of States committed to greater ambition and action on aviation.”

In addition to representation from the aviation and SAF production sectors, the roundtable was also attended by Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of RMI, which are spearheading the recently-formed Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA).

“In the coming months, the administration will be challenged to develop a methodology to determine the environmental criteria to ensure that only high-integrity SAF receives public support. The administration’s call for credibility and consistency with the international community, including ICAO, makes us optimistic. EDF and our partners in SABA are up to the task of ensuring that SAF contributes effectively to decarbonisation,” said Pedro Piris-Cabezas, EDF’s Director for Sustainable International Transport.

Photo: Alaska Airlines

US Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has introduced a new bill, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Act, that sets a goal of achieving a net 35% reduction in US aviation greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2050. The bill, S. 1608, would create a grant programme authorised at $1 billion over five years to expand the number of US facilities producing SAF and build out the necessary supporting infrastructure. It also requires the Environmental Protection Agency to establish an aviation-only low carbon fuel standard that regulates aviation fuel producers and importers. The bill also calls for a new blender’s tax credit that was included in proposed legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Julia Brownley in February, although she is now co-leading a new House bill, the Sustainable Skies Act, which has just been introduced by Congressman Brad Schneider that would also create the tax credit. The Schneider bill has received support from the US airline industry, US NGOs and SAF producers. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy has announced funding of $35 million towards research into optimising biofuel manufacturing to reduce carbon waste, with an award going to alcohol-to-jet technology company LanzaTech.

“Air travel connects the world in all kinds of important ways but comes with a high price for our climate,” said Whitehouse, a strong advocate for policies addressing climate change, environmental protection and a price on carbon, on the introduction of his bill, S. 1608. “The best solution is to transition away from fossil jet fuels and encourage the production of sustainable fuel alternatives that are just as safe for passengers and much safer for the planet.”

Whitehouse said in a press statement that although sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was starting to be produced both in the US and internationally, it wasn’t at a scale fast enough to achieve long-term climate change goals.

“The same feedstocks used to produce SAF are also used to produce renewable diesel, which is primarily for ground transportation,” said the statement. “If not corrected, the lack of policy incentives to produce SAF rather than cheaper renewable diesel will have long-term consequences for the climate.”

Added Californian Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is co-sponsoring the legislation: “Air travel is a significant contributor to climate change and we need to take strong action to reduce its emissions. This bill complements California’s low carbon fuel standard so aviation fuel can be used closer to where it’s produced.”

As well as the $1 billion grant programme and the establishment of a Low Carbon Aviation Fuel Standard under the Clean Air Act in which parties will have to comply with a carbon intensity benchmark that declines each year, the Act would require the FAA to conduct additional research on ways to increase SAF utilisation in the aviation sector and require the Department of Defense to increase SAF utilisation to 10% from 2024, so long as it was cost competitive with fossil jet fuel and readily available.

It would also expand the existing energy investment tax credit to include SAF production facilities and related infrastructure. The credit would be a 30% credit through 2026 and then falling in stages to 12% from 2029 to 2035, at which point it would fully phase out.

The Act finds common ground with the Schneider proposed legislation in establishing a blender’s tax credit for SAF of between $1.50/gallon and $1.75/gallon, depending on the reduction of GHG emissions achieved by the SAF, although the Whitehouse bill would scrap SAF eligibility for the existing $1/gallon biodiesel tax credit in order to prevent ‘double dipping’.

Under the Schneider legislation, the £1.50/gal tax credit would apply to blenders that supply SAF with a demonstrated 50% or greater lifecycle estimate reduction in GHG emissions compared to standard jet fuel. In order to incentivise greater reductions in emissions, his legislation provides an additional credit of $0.01/gal for each percentage the fuel reduces emissions over 50%, so a SAF that reduces emissions by 70% would receive a credit of $1.70/gal. The tax credit would expire at the end of 2031.

To ensure environmental integrity, the legislation would exclude palm fatty acid distillates (PFAD) as an eligible feedstock “due to its detrimental environmental record” and would require eligible SAFs to conform with the full ICAO sustainability criteria, including accounting for both aggregate attributional core lifecycle emissions and the induced land use change.

Rep. Brad Schneider: “Implementing sustainable aviation fuels is the single most important step the aviation industry can take to combat climate change and I’m proud to take this legislation to the House”

“Air travel has changed the world and will be a growing part of our future. It is imperative for America to confront the existential challenge of climate change by making air travel cleaner,” said Schneider, an Illinois representative, in a press statement. “The Sustainable Skies Act will halve carbon emissions while also enabling more travel and commerce, a win-win for Americans today and our future generations.

“Implementing sustainable aviation fuels is the single most important step the aviation industry can take to combat climate change and I’m proud to take this legislation to the House with the support of both Illinois-based companies like United and LanzaJet, and climate change champions like the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).”

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby described the Act as a critical step on the path the decarbonise his airline and the broader airline industry, while Nicholas Calio, President of industry body Airlines for America, said the measure would go a long way towards improving the cost-competitiveness of SAF.

“The US airline industry has set a goal of making 2 billion gallons of environmentally-friendly SAF available for US carriers to use in 2030 and supportive measures like this will enable us to achieve that goal,” said Calio.

The Act has the support of two unions, the Air Lines Pilot Association (ALPA) and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

“Flight attendants know first-hand the threat climate change poses to our safety and our jobs – increased turbulence, extreme weather events and more,” said Sara Nelson of the union that represents 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines. “We urge Congress to act urgently to support the production and use of SAF and reduce the aviation industry’s reliance on petroleum-based jet fuel, ensuring real reductions in aviation emissions. The time for investment is now.”

Added ALPA’s Capt Bob Fox: “From our flight deck window, airline pilots have a rare perspective on the earth. We see the droughts, forest fires and storms that are linked to climate change but our view is also shaped by practices and policies that already allow us to contribute to a cleaner environment. Airline pilots are eager to do even more to protect our planet and that’s why ALPA supports the Act.”

Paul Bledsoe, Energy Fellow and strategic advisor at the Progressive Policy Institute, said passing the Act “is the single most important near-term action Congress can take to reduce GHG emissions from aviation. Right now, SAF is not widely available, so durable tax incentives are needed to jumpstart much higher production and use, and to reduce long-term costs so the credit can be phased out after a decade. This crucial legislation should be included in infrastructure bills Congressional tax committees are writing and passed into law at the earliest opportunity.”

EDF’s SVP for Climate, Nat Keohane, told a media call hosted by Schneider that it was important sustainable fuels were genuinely sustainable and that the Act created the right incentives, and that it was performance based and excluded some of the most problematic pathways of the past.

“It is designed so that the incentive grows with the carbon benefit and we’re excited about the broader environmental safeguards, with a rigorous sustainability criteria that the US government helped to put in place at ICAO so that only those fuels with the highest integrity get the tax credit. This will ensure, for example, that biofuels from deforested land don’t qualify, which is a critical aspect. We are also pleased the bill provides for e-fuels, or power-to-liquid fuels, which will be a key part of the mix going forward,” he said.

With two similar pieces of legislation being introduced in Congress at the same time, EDF and WWF are supporting both.

“We supported the original bill introduced in the US House of Representatives by Congresswoman Brownley, and Senator Whitehouse introduced the companion bill in the Senate last week,” Kelley Kizzier, EDF’s VP Global Climate, explained to GreenAir. “We see these as complementary, a continuation of our partnership. Representative Brownley’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Act reflects a comprehensive approach, including a blender’s tax credit provision and a national goal for decarbonising the aviation sector. The Sustainable Skies Act focuses on the blender’s tax credit and allows us to go deeper into this element of the broader decarbonisation agenda to introduce robust environmental safeguards.”

Brad Schallert, WWF’s Director of Carbon Market Governance and Aviation, said: “Aviation emissions are projected to triple by 2050 but there is a route for the aviation industry to support a climate-safe and more environmentally sound future for the planet. Powering planes with SAF is an indispensable step along this journey and Congress can help realise it by passing Senator Whitehouse’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Act.”

Industry though is throwing its weight behind the Schneider bill. “The blender’s tax credit may be able to move forward to adoption more quickly than a SAF bill with many components, thus helping to support the scale-up of SAF production and bringing related GHG emissions savings, jobs, energy security and other benefits in the nearer term,” a source told GreenAir.

Others supporting the Schneider bill include Third Way, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and some US aviation trade associations. As well as Brownley, the bill is co-led by Congressman Dan Kildee, and Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown is expected to introduce a Senate companion bill shortly.

Rep. Julia Brownley: “There’s a lot more to be done but we’ve made extraordinary progress and the Biden administration is now supporting the blender’s tax credit and we look forward to the continued work and advocacy to move this bill forward”

“The United States can be a leader in the shift to cleaner, more sustainable fuels that will create good-paying jobs across the aviation sector,” said Brownley. “I’ve been pleased to work on the blender’s tax credit provision with Congressmen Schneider and Kildee, together with a broad coalition of stakeholders. The Sustainable Skies Act we are introducing is a consensus proposal that has the support of environmentalists, airlines, SAF producers and labour, and this clearly demonstrates that SAF policy can be both a win for the environment and a win for the economy. There’s a lot more to be done but we’ve made extraordinary progress and the Biden administration is now supporting the blender’s tax credit and we look forward to the continued work and advocacy to move this bill forward.”

Brownley told the media call she still supported components in her own bill that are now in the Whitehouse bill, such as on SAF production infrastructure and the Low Carbon Aviation Fuel Standard. “I am continuing to work on all of this – it’s just that parts of my bill are longer term but this [the Sustainable Skies bill] can be done now and really be an engine to move this industry forward.”

Jeremy Baines, President of SAF producer Neste US said the blender’s tax credit legislation was a practical solution that could be immediately deployed and accelerate the production and use of SAF. LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis said a long-term, performance-based blender’s tax credit would allow his company to be able to invest in and produce SAF at scale across the nation.

The Whitehouse bill requires the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and the Environment to conduct additional research on ways to increase SAF fuel utilisation in the aviation sector and the impact of aviation emissions on the climate crisis. It also requires the Department of Energy (DOE), in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, to research the use of cover crops in the production of SAF.

Meanwhile, the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has announced a total of $35 million in funding awarded to 15 research projects towards advancing new technologies to decarbonise biorefining processes across the energy, transportation and agriculture sectors. It said biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and other products derived from organic material, are almost exclusively produced via a fermentation conversion process that create carbon as a by-product, with some processes wasting more than a third of this carbon as CO2. As a result, says DOE, there is a critical need to create new pathways for biofuel conversion that reduces carbon waste, prevents the loss of CO2 emissions and, in turn, maximises the amount of renewable fuel a conversion process yields.

“Biofuel is a powerful tool in the clean energy toolkit that has immense potential to power our ships and airlines with zero carbon emissions,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. “DOE is investing in research to reduce emissions and maximise the availability of efficient biofuel as we strive to reach President Biden’s net-zero carbon goals.”

Most of the recipients of the funding are universities and laboratories but an award of $4.1 million has been made to alcohol-to-jet fuel pioneer LanzaTech. The company, which will partner with the University of Michigan and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says the funding will be used to enhance existing technology to enable the direct conversion of CO2 to ethanol at 100% efficiency. It will develop a gas fermentation process that leverages affordable, renewable hydrogen to directly capture and fix CO2 into fuels and chemicals while limiting emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. The carbon optimised conversion technology developed under the project can be integrated within multiple CO2 sources, such as corn grain ethanol refining and direct air capture to create a new carbon economy, said LanzaTech.

Photo: United Airlines

Airlines for America (A4A), the trade organisation for major US airlines, has announced the commitment of its members to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and has pledged to work with government and stakeholders towards a rapid expansion and deployment of commercially-viable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It has also set a medium-term goal of 2 billion gallons of SAF to be available for use by US aircraft operators in 2030. A majority of A4A members have already set recent net-zero or carbon-neutral targets, including Alaska, American Airlines, Delta, FedEx, JetBlue, United and associate member Air Canada, but A4A CEO Nicholas Calio said it was important to make an industry-wide commitment on what would be a “massive undertaking”. He said reaching the 2030 SAF goal alone would require an 84% annual average increase in production and called for positive policy support from Congress in upcoming infrastructure legislation. Specifically, A4A is calling for a SAF blender’s credit, further modernisation of the US air traffic management system, expansion of public-private aviation environmental R&D programmes, US implementation of the international CORSIA carbon offsetting scheme and backing for emerging technologies like carbon capture and sequestration.

The association pointed out that US airlines had a strong track record in reducing their GHG emissions footprint and currently accounted for less than 2% of the US GHG inventory, having improved their fuel efficiency by over 135% between 1978 and the end of 2019.

“We are proud of our record on climate change. But we know the climate challenge our country and the world face has only continued to intensify,” said Calio. “Today, we embrace the need to take even bolder, more significant steps to address this challenge. US airlines are ready, willing and able partners, and are proud to be part of the climate change solution.

“To move the needle, we must all work together and the government needs to be an active partner and provide positive infrastructure and other investments to complement our efforts.”

A4A said it was imperative that US federal, state and local governments implement supportive policies and programmes to enable innovation, scale-up, cost-competitiveness and deployment, “while avoiding the implementation of policies that would limit the aviation industry’s ability to invest in emissions-reducing measures.” Although many A4A members were already investing in SAF, the sector required a similar and urgent commitment from policy-makers, fuel producers and others in the SAF feedstock and fuel supply chain to achieve meaningful scalability, it added.

A4A quotes US Environmental Protection Agency figures that just over 2.4 million gallons of neat (100%) SAF were produced in the US in 2019, which compares to the 21.5 billion gallons of conventional jet fuel used by US airlines that year, indicating SAF comprised just 0.01% of total jet fuel supply. SAF that is available, it adds, is typically 3-5 times more expensive than conventional jet fuel. The 2 billion-gallon by 2030 goal would represent SAF take-up of just under 10% of total jet fuel based on 2019 consumption.

The recommended SAF-specific blender’s tax credit would require federal approval of a 10-year performance-based tax credit at $1.50 per gallon for SAF that achieves a 50% lifecycle GHG emissions benefit and additional credit up to $2/gallon for SAF with GHG emissions savings above 50%. In addition to the blender’s tax credit, A4A also suggests a SAF-specific tax credit for the annual production of SAF. It also calls for SAF production grants and loan guarantees, SAF-specific R&D, an enhanced Department of Energy focus on SAF and support for the ASTM review and approval process for SAF pathways.

While stressing its members would be focused on means to reduce GHG emissions within the aviation sector, A4A said innovations in other sectors to support deployment of cleaner energy and carbon removals that could be leveraged by airlines were critical. These include carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS), direct air carbon capture and sequestration (DACCS) and proven nature-based solutions that remove and sequester carbon.

As well as the medium and long term goals, A4A reaffirmed the global aviation industry carbon-neutral growth goal to limit net carbon emissions to 2019 levels, “subject to critical aviation infrastructure and technology advances achieved by the industry and government, and to consider making the baseline more stringent taking into account longer-term emissions reduction goals and developments.”

A4A said it welcomed US engagement at ICAO on discussions to reach a consensus on a long-term climate goal at the UN agency’s Assembly in 2022.

Photo: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

US environmental groups say the proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to adopt the ICAO CO2 standards for aircraft into US regulations violates the nation’s Clean Air Act because it fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions despite the EPA’s findings that such emissions endanger public health and welfare. Moreover, they say, the proposal’s failure to consider the statutory factors laid out in the Act or analyse the costs and benefits of a range of possible emission standards, and refusal to select an alternative based on the evidence before the agency was “arbitrary and capricious”. The groups were responding to a public comment period just closed on the proposal, which has been largely supported by US aerospace and airline sectors. Although the majority of aircraft will not be subject to the standards until January 2028, the industry is calling for finalisation of its domestic adoption by the end of this year.

The aircraft CO2 standards were adopted by the ICAO Council in March 2017 and are contained in Annex 16 of the Chicago Convention. It applies to new aircraft type designs from 2020 and to aircraft type designs already in production as of 2023. Those in-production aircraft which by 2028 do not meet the standards will no longer be able to be produced unless their designs are sufficiently modified. The EPA and FAA represented the United States on ICAO’s environmental protection committee CAEP, which drew up the standards.

After legal challenges by environmental groups, in 2016 the EPA issued findings that within the meaning of section 231 of the Clean Air Act, elevated concentrations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere endangered the public health and welfare of current and future generations, and that GHG emissions from certain classes of engines used in certain aircraft are contributing to the air pollution that endangers public health and welfare.

As such, the EPA is proposing to regulate GHG emissions from covered airplanes through the adoption of domestic GHG regulations that match ICAO’s international CO2 standards. Covered airplanes are civil subsonic jet aircraft with a MTOM greater than 5,700 kgs and larger civil subsonic turboprop airplanes with a MTOM greater than 8,618 kgs. It proposes to adopt the ICAO CO2 metric, which measures fuel efficiency, for demonstrating compliance with the GHG emissions standards. The metric is a mathematical function that incorporates the specific air range (SAR) of an airplane/engine combination – a traditional measure of airplane cruise performance in units of km/kg of fuel – and the reference geometric factor (RGF), a measure of fuselage size.

To measure airplane fuel efficiency, the EPA is proposing to adopt the ICAO test procedures whereby the SAR value is measured in three specific operating test points, and a composite of those results used in the metric to determine compliance with the proposed GHG standards. In order to be consistent with the current annual reporting requirement for engine emissions, the EPA is also proposing to require the annual reporting of the number of airplanes produced, airplane characteristics and test parameters.

The EPA says US manufacturers have already developed or are developing technologies that will allow affected airplanes to comply with the ICAO standards, in advance of its adoption, and it anticipates nearly all affected airplanes to be compliant by the respective dates for new type designs and for in-production airplanes. This includes the expectation that existing in-production airplanes that are non-compliant will either be modified and re-certificated as compliant or will likely go out of production before the production compliance date of 1 January 2028.

“For these reasons, the EPA is not projecting emission reductions associated with these proposed GHG regulations,” it states in the executive summary of the proposed rule.

The EPA held a virtual public hearing on September 17, with participation from aircraft and engine manufacturers, aerospace and airline industry associations, environmental organisations and other interested parties. Over 120 written public comments have been submitted in response to the proposal by the October 19 closing date.

A coalition of environmental groups that first filed a suit against the EPA over a decade ago to force the agency to address GHG emissions from aircraft said the proposal violated section 231 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) as it failed to reduce GHG emissions from aircraft despite the EPA’s own endangerment findings.

“Moreover, the proposal’s failure to consider the statutory factors laid out in section 231, over-reliance on factors outside the statute, failure to analyse the costs and benefits of a sufficient range of possible emission standards, and refusal to select an alternative based on the evidence before the agency are arbitrary and capricious,” says the submission by Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Natural Resources Defense Council.

“These flaws cannot be remedied in a final rule. Instead, EPA must replace the proposal with one that meets its duties under the Clean Air Act. The final regulations must employ strong mechanisms to reduce emissions from aircraft and protect the public health and welfare and in doing so, EPA must consider the full panoply of available measures, including declining fleetwide emissions averages and operational and design improvements.

“To avoid catastrophic climate change, EPA must implement standards that far exceeds ICAO’s standards in both stringency and scope.”

The submission dismisses the EPA’s argument that US manufacturers would be at a competitive disadvantage if the US failed to adopt standards in line with ICAO’s. “EPA provides no legitimate basis for this assertion. Nothing prevents the US from adopting standards that are more stringent than ICAO’s and EPA has responsibility to do so if that is what public health and environmental protection require.”

Commenting on its own submission, Annie Petsonk, International Counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, said: “As EPA’s own analysis indicates, the proposed standards will not drive emissions down. It simply embodies what the industry has already baked in. To justify its approach, EPA relied on a problematic estimate of the costs of doing nothing, arbitrarily ignoring the real costs of climate pollution that people across the country are facing every day.

“As the aviation industry tries to bounce back from Covid, it must put addressing the climate crisis at the core of its recovery, and government needs to lead the way. A stringent aircraft pollution standard would mean jobs building the aircraft and creating the fuels of the future. Instead, EPA’s proposed aircraft rule ignores the science and contravenes laws that require it to protect public health and the environment.

“We urge EPA to replace its proposal with standards that will actually reduce aircraft emissions, as one key element of a broader package of carrots and sticks to get the aviation industry to take real steps to cut climate pollution.”

In its submission to the EPA, the non-profit environmental research organisation International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) said its analysis showed new deliveries of commercial aircraft in 2019 were on average 6% more fuel efficient than required by the ICAO standards.

With some caveats, the industry response to the EPA’s proposal is supportive of legislation in line with ICAO CO2 standards, which it sees as meeting the criteria set out in the CAA’s section 231.

“Adopting the standards into US law will ensure US-manufactured aircraft and engines are available to US airlines, while fostering global competition and enabling our airlines to acquire aircraft and aircraft engines at market-driven, competitive prices,” says a joint submission by Airlines for America and the Air Lines Pilots Association International. “Especially given that, as the agency itself notes, other ICAO member states that certify airplanes have already adopted the ICAO CO2 standards, the agency needs to act to put US manufacturers on the same footing as their foreign counterparts.”

The two trade bodies said the ICAO standards would achieve GHG emissions reductions, support US policies to combat climate change and provide international uniformity. “Aircraft and the international airspace system simply could not function if aircraft and aircraft engines were subject to disparate regulatory requirements and standards.”

However, they asked the EPA to clarify in its rulemaking that the proposed US standards did not apply to in-service aircraft and disagreed with the agency’s conclusion that there could be no costs or benefits attributable to the standards.

A submission by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) said its members had already taken steps to ensure compliance with the proposed standards, including making plans to end production of the least fuel-efficient aircraft.

“The majority of aircraft will not be subject to the standards until 1 January 2028. Nevertheless, we urge the EPA to finalise the domestic adoption of these rules by the end of this year,” said the AIA. “Airlines purchase aircraft several years in advance. They are currently deciding on aircraft that will be delivered through the end of this decade. When making these decisions, airlines will require assurances that aircraft meet the standards to operate in international markets.

“Without domestic regulations in place, the FAA would be unable to certify an aircraft as meeting the ICAO CO2 standards. In this situation, US manufacturers would be at a serious competitive disadvantage if airlines were to seek greater regulatory certainty by opting to purchase aircraft manufactured elsewhere that meet the requirements of their certifying authority’s equivalent rules, which have already been implemented in some cases.

“If this was to occur, it could jeopardise tens of billions of dollars in sales for the US aerospace industry.”

Engine manufacturer GE said the proposed rule would provide the global aviation industry with much-needed certainty and consistency as it faced the Covid crisis and its adoption would satisfy US obligations under the Chicago Convention by ensuring compliance with ICAO standards.

GE also argued that more stringent GHG standards were not appropriate and would potentially violate the Clean Air Act.

“The CAA does not require the EPA to ‘technology force’ at the risk of flight safety,” said the submission. “[It] requires EPA to refrain from changing aircraft emission standards if such a change would adversely affect safety. To maintain the trust and confidence of the flying public, it is imperative that EPA not adopt standards that could in any way be perceived as sacrificing aviation safety. The perception of the flying public matters and EPA should endeavour to avoid any erosion of public confidence in the safety of aviation. This objective is best achieved by EPA remaining aligned with the ICAO analytical criteria of technical feasibility, environmental benefit, cost effectiveness and impacts of interdependencies, which have helped ensure the continuation of aviation’s impressive safety record.

“Moreover, when preparing this proposal, EPA carefully analysed the impacts of two more stringent alternatives. These analyses show that the alternatives would lead to minimal reduction in GHG emissions, while imposing significant costs associated with deviating from the ICAO standards. Consequently, EPA appropriately decided against proposing either of these alternatives.”

While supportive of aligning EPA regulations with the ICAO CO2 standard, both Boeing and Airbus are opposed to the reporting requirements laid out in the proposal. Boeing said they were unnecessary as they were duplicative of FAA reporting requirements, “and unwise because they pose unnecessary risks to Boeing’s confidential business information and potentially the nation’s security.”

The concerns are centred on fears the EPA could make public manufacturers’ specific air range data.

“SAR data is highly sensitive, treated by Boeing and other airplane manufacturers as a trade secret and protected zealously from disclosure to competitors and the public,” says the Boeing submission. “because of the strategic value of SAR data, it can also be subject to federal export controls and sanction regimes.

“There is also a risk that someone could wrongly argue that SAR data should be considered to be emissions data or ‘related technical information’ that EPA must disclose. EPA should not collect SAR data … and should not require reporting of that data. If it nonetheless requires reporting of SAR data then EPA must ensure that data is protected from public disclosure.

“EPA need not collect SAR data to track airplane CO2 emissions performance and verify compliance. ICAO agreed to the use and public reporting of an aircraft’s [fuel efficiency] metric value for this purpose because it is sufficient by itself to enable assessment of compliance with the CO2 emissions standard, while continuing to maintain the confidentiality of manufacturers’ SAR data. Significantly, ICAO does not require public reporting of RGF – an important element of SAR data – precisely because it can be used to derive an airplane’s SAR.”

Airbus too said SAR data and the reference geometric factor were highly commercially sensitive information. It also questioned the EPA’s authority to request such information when a large number of airplanes delivered around the world would never operate within the United States.

“ICAO is the right body to create international standards,” said the Airbus submission. “Airbus believes that in the absence of a worldwide harmonisation process, regional requirements could produce unintended consequences that would harm the aviation industry. We therefore urge the EPA to adopt the proposed ICAO rule with no additional requirements.”

The ICAO Aircraft CO2 standards are contained in Volume III to Annex 16 of the Chicago Convention and were adopted in Europe by the European Parliament and Council in July 2018 (Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1139). The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published certification specifications concerning the standard in August 2019.

Photo: Boeing