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Speech

National Aeronautic Association

Thank you Steve [Callaghan]. It's an honor and a pleasure to be here today. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you some thoughts on how we're going to manage aviation growth in an environmentally friendly way. I am especially pleased to be speaking to the National Aeronautic Association because as the organization charged with verifying record setting attempts in aviation this seems an appropriate place to talk both about aviation's past record in this area and the next record we need to set in meeting the challenge of aviation's impact on climate change.

The issue of climate change certainly has been in the news. Whether you followed the proceedings in Bali or the numerous legislative proposals being discussed in Congress, the debate about how to deal with climate change is certainly "heating up." This has been no less true for aviation. What to do about aviation greenhouse gas emissions dominated the discussions last fall at the ICAO Assembly in Montreal. And just before Christmas the EU continued down the internationally unpopular path of seeking to impose its emissions trading system on international aviation.

So, I want to take a few minutes to offer some thoughts on how I believe we need to tackle this challenge. I'd like to start though by sharing a lesson learned from my oldest son. Tyler plays on a highly competitive soccer team but he wasn't getting the playing time he thought he deserved. After a while, he had convinced himself that the reason he wasn't on the field was because his coach didn't like him. He almost threw in the towel. Then one day, about half way through the season, he came home after practice with this epiphany, "You know Dad," he said "it doesn't matter if coach likes me or not. I'm going to play and practice so well, he'll have no choice but to start me." And that's exactly what happened.

In a similar fashion, just like my son's experience, we have a disconnect growing between perception and performance on aviation emissions. Especially in Europe, there is a perception that aviation greenhouse gas emissions are growing out of control, that aviation is "the next tobacco industry" and needs to be reined in by emissions caps and taxes. But like my son on the soccer field, the U.S. must trump perception with performance. We've been doing so for over four decades and we have no intention of stopping.

Let me briefly lay out where we are today in terms of performance — I'll give you some observations on the kind of goals we need to think about, and what we're doing to get there. But from the start, let me be clear — we don't have all the answers at this point. What we have is a commitment that is at the very heart of the Next Generation Air Transportation System — a commitment to provide a systematic, well-informed and performance-based approach to tackling environmental issues.

Worldwide, aviation represents less than 3 percent of total GHG emissions. And in the U.S., how have we been doing? Well the good news is that when you compare today to 2000, U.S. commercial aviation is moving 12 percent more passengers and 22 percent more freight while burning less fuel, reducing our carbon output by a million tons. This is a much better performance than the U.S. economy overall.

Now let's give these numbers some context. Consider the performance of the other major aviation market in the world — the European Union. Between 2000 and 2006, aviation emissions in the U.S. declined by about 4 percent. During the same period in Europe, emissions increased by around 30 percent!

The aviation industry has made and continues to make significant improvements in fuel efficiency. Aircraft fuel efficiency has improved 70 percent over the last 40 years and it's only getting better. On a per-passenger-mile basis, Boeing's new 787 will be much more fuel efficient than today's compact car. All this efficiency without a single government imposed emission standard for aviation. That's because there is no better motivator for efficiency in this industry than the price of fuel — that goes for both manufacturers and operators. And with fuel now representing 25-30 percent of U.S. airline costs, the motivation has never been stronger.

The FAA is working alongside industry to improve the emission efficiency of air transport in the U.S. Some efforts, like the introduction of Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum, have been very successful, saving about 3 million tons of CO2 annually. Other efforts, like the redesign of the Northeast airspace, are more difficult to put in place, but no less important to our overall goal of increasing capacity while minimizing emissions.

So, the good news is we are starting from a record of exceptional performance historically as we decide how to move forward.

And what should we be seeking in terms of environmental goals? I don't have the answer today. Partly because much of our future success is dependent upon NextGen, and we won't know its full benefits until NextGen is fully operational. That said, I think carbon neutral growth is something we need to examine. For instance, if U.S. aviation miles flown increase 4 percent, then we need to find a combination of measures that provides a 4 percent improvement in fuel burn.

This crowd knows that records aren't normally set by accident. Records are broken under the midnight oil after hours of careful planning and study. So too will the record of zero emissions growth be set. We will need to work hard adhering to a careful plan. I believe there are five very critical prerequisites to this effort if we want to achieve this in a commercially viable manner.

First, we must improve our scientific understanding of the impacts of aviation emissions. While CO2's impacts are understood, our comprehension of the impacts from other emissions — especially at altitude — ranges from fair to poor. We must ensure that we identify the harmful emissions, accurately measure their impact, and design appropriate technologies, or procedures to mitigate or eliminate their effects. We are doing this. As part of our Next Generation Air Transportation System effort to advance our understanding in this area, we recently launched the Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative in partnership with NASA and other agencies. We hope this initiative will help accelerate our scientific understanding to inform policy decisions in this area.

Second, we must accelerate air traffic management improvements and efficiencies to reduce fuel burn. Improving energy efficiency has the dual benefit of improving both environmental and financial performance of the aviation sector. As I said before, we have saved millions of tons of carbon emissions over the past couple of years by putting RVSM in place. We are accelerating implementation of RNAV, RNP and other procedures to further improve the fuel efficiency of the system. We are working with our European counterparts to advance the use of environmentally friendly procedures across the Atlantic through the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions — yes, that initiative has the clever acronym "AIRE".

Third, we must hasten the development of promising environmental improvements in aircraft technology. This builds upon the fact that the vast majority of improvements in environmental performance the last three decades has come from enhancements in engine and airframe design. We currently have legislation before Congress that would create a research consortium focused on accelerating the maturation of lower energy, emissions and noise technology for aircraft. This consortium is called, cleverly enough, CLEEN. Hey, with acronyms like AIRE and CLEEN — how can Congress not put them in the FAA Reauthorization this year?

Fourth, it is imperative to explore the potential of alternative fuels for aviation — fuels that improve emissions performance at both the local and global level. This has benefits in improving not only environmental performance but also energy security. The FAA is a major partner in the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuel Initiative, or "CAAFI." CAAFI's participants — which include a cross-section of airlines, manufacturers, airports, petroleum firms, federal agencies and international players — are implementing a roadmap to explore the use of alternative fuels for commercial aviation. Let me emphasize this is not "pie in the sky." We have already seen limited use of coal to liquid fuels in aviation, and some testing of bio-fuels.

Finally, a variety of market-based measures may offer assistance in managing aviation emissions growth. Approaches using tax incentives, emissions trading, or carbon offsets may all have a role to play. The key is to ensure we are adopting cost-beneficial measures and that we respect the prerogative of States to develop and implement measures they believe are appropriate. Attempting a "one size fits all" approach on the international community will only benefit lawyers, not the environment.

In all these endeavors, we believe ICAO must continue to exercise global leadership to achieve aviation growth in an environmentally responsible fashion. ICAO offers the best forum to find the harmonized approaches we need for a global industry like aviation. It allows the proper balance of collaboration and State sovereignty.

We are committed to supporting that effort. Beginning next month, I will represent the U.S. in the fifteen-nation Group on International Aviation and Climate Change. This high-level group was conceived during last year's ICAO Assembly and is being set up to develop an international plan to address international green house gas emissions. My hope is to take the approach I have outlined here — a balanced approach derived from the recognition that operational and technological environmental performance improvements, coupled with market measures where necessary, can form the basis to derive data-driven, challenging, aspirational goals for the international community.

As this organization knows better than any other — aviation has succeeded in its first century because it has constantly met the challenge of innovation and record setting — flying faster, higher, and safer. In doing so, aviation has transformed the world. Any fair reading of history will show that until now, aviation has done an exceptional job in improving its environmental performance. But to be blunt, the issue isn't past performance, but what records we're going to set going forward.

I have outlined briefly here an approach the U.S. is pursuing to tackle the issues of aviation and climate change through its NextGen endeavors. My hope is that through this approach we will find a way forward — both domestically and internationally — to set firmly in place an effective framework to address the many significant environmental challenges we face. In this way, we will achieve the environmental record we need to ensure aviation brings continued benefits to people in the U.S. and around the world in its second century.

Thank you and I'd be glad to take a few questions.