Ed Bolen speaks to Senate Committee

NBAA president and chief
executive officer Ed Bolen testified before a Senate committee that the
European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) “singles out a great
American industry for discriminatory treatment.”

Calling the European scheme
“fatally flawed,” Bolen told the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation that “as badly as commercial airlines are
treated, non-commercial aviation is treated even worse.”

As an example, he said an
airline can fly from Chile
to Europe twice a day using a large jetliner without being subjected to the
EU-ETS because commercial carriers that operate only two flights per day to or
from Europe have been deemed “small
emitters,” and thus are exempted from the scheme.

“Yet a US-based farm
equipment company that flies to Europe once a year on a US-built general
aviation airplane will be subjected to the EU-ETS,” Bolen said. “Why?
Because it is a ‘non-commercial’ flight and the ‘small-emitter’ exemption is
not available to ‘non-commercial’ operators.”

“How does this make
sense?” Bolen asked. “It doesn’t. It’s unfair and it’s
discriminatory.”

He added that the plan also
creates a costly administrative burden on US business aviation that
“raises serious privacy and business-confidentiality concerns, because the
scheme requires U.S. companies to provide a huge amount of sensitive data,
including bank account information, flight data, personal information and other
disclosures-all of which would become available to the public.”

Bolen noted, “These
intrusive, administratively burdensome and expensive requirements are all
before the actual cost of the ETS is even assessed on operators.”

He reminded the committee that
business aviation is a uniquely American industry that represents thousands of
US businesses of all sizes and a wide array of industries. “It is a U.S. industry
that helps create jobs and spur economic development,” he asserted.
“It is a U.S.
industry that enhances productivity and assists in humanitarian efforts. And it
is a U.S.
industry that connects people to the global marketplace. On behalf of this
industry, I thank the members of the committee for holding this important and
timely hearing, and for giving the business aviation community an opportunity
to voice the concerns surrounding the EU-ETS.”