Environmentalists press lawmakers not to reject EU emissions trading

In their letter to lawmakers Monday, the travel industry groups said “The EU [emissions trading system] will increase costs in the industry significantly, which will reduce consumer demand, and will hamper airlines’ and other operators’ ability to invest in research and development and in new aircraft and equipment.

“The EU ETS is estimated to cost U.S. airlines $3.1 billion between 2012 and 2020,” the transportation groups’ letter said. “All operators and airlines operating to and from the EU will be required to purchase allowances for their emissions regardless of their citizenship. The EU has made no promise to reinvest any revenues from its ETS into aviation research and development, meaning U.S. operators could directly subsidize the coffers of foreign governments. Furthermore, the EU ETS and other planned unilateral schemes and taxes will lead to double, triple or worse charges on the same emissions from aviation.”

The environmentalists countered that the House bill to ban the EU system “is premised on fundamentally erroneous legal and policy assumptions.

“Contrary to the bill’s assumptions, the Aviation Directive is carefully crafted to fall well within the requirements of international law (and has been upheld as such in a rigorously reasoned preliminary decision of the European Court of Justice),” the letter said.

“It is non-discriminatory and applies even-handedly to all flights landing in or departing from EU airports regardless of origin or destination, and to the operators of those flights regardless of the airline’s home country. The program requires a 3 percent emissions reduction (compared to a 2004-2006 baseline) by 2013, and a 5 percent reduction by 2020; it is flexible in design, giving airlines multiple compliance options to meet these emissions control obligations. Moreover, flights arriving from countries with programs equivalent to the EU’s are exempted altogether.”

The letter against passage of the emission trading ban was signed by ActionAid USA; Earthjustice; Environment America; the Environmental Defense Fund; Greenpeace USA; the League of Conservation Voters; the Natural Resources Defense Council; Oxfam America; the Sierra Club; and World Wildlife Fund.