Green efforts in flight
The Boston Globe that the rapidly expanding and therefore environmentally threatening US airlines industry faces new concerns over long-term contributions to global warming. The complaint-ridden industry might now find itself on the defensive in response to a “dispute over European emissions trading proposal.”
…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.
