U.S. asked to regulate airplane pollution

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO: A coalition of states, cities and environmental groups is urging the U.S. government to curb global warming pollution from planes and other aircraft.

California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia were to file a petition Wednesday asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic and foreign aircraft departing or landing at American airports. New York City and the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California have also joined the states' petition.

"We want the EPA to take their head out of the sand and actively promulgate rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the attorney general of California, Jerry Brown, told The Associated Press. The agency "has taken a very passive and unimaginative approach to combating global warming."

Aviation is responsible for about 3 percent of overall carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration expects domestic aircraft emissions to rise 60 percent by 2025, according to the petition.

The petition asks the environmental agency to develop rules to reduce aircraft emissions by requiring operators to increase fuel efficiency, use cleaner fuels or acquire lighter, more aerodynamic airplanes.

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm in Oakland, California, plans to file a similar petition on behalf of Friends of the Earth, Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Officials at the environmental agency said it would review the petitions but defended its efforts to combat global warming.

The United States "has invested over $37 billion on climate change science, technology and tax incentive programs - more than any other country in the world," the agency said in statement.

The Air Transport Association, which represents major American airlines, said establishing a greenhouse gas emissions standard for aircraft engines was not necessary "when the commercial airlines already are driven to be as fuel efficient and environmentally conscious as possible."

U.S. airlines have doubled their fuel efficiency over the past three decades and are committed to increasing fuel efficiency an additional 30 percent by 2025, the association said.

The petition comes as thousands of government officials, climate scientists and environmentalists from almost 190 nations meet in Bali, Indonesia, this week for the annual United Nations climate change conference.

California and several conservation groups filed a similar petition in October asking the environmental agency to limit emissions of heat-trapping gases from cargo ships, cruise liners and other oceangoing vessels.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.routers.com),(www.iht.com), (www.routers.com), (www.nytimes.com)