They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney the U.S. wouldn’t support “green” policies. And they were right:
President Barack Obama signed a bill on Tuesday shielding U.S. airlines from paying for each ton of carbon their planes flying into and out of Europe emit, despite a recent move by Europe to suspend its proposed measure for one year.
The carbon fee bill was the first piece of legislation debated on the House floor after Congress returned from recess on November 13, and had been cleared by the Senate in September in a rare unanimous vote.
It directs the U.S. transportation secretary to shield U.S. airlines from Europe’s carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) if he or she deems it necessary.
Lawyers have said the bill is an unusual piece legislation because it would prevent U.S. companies from complying with the laws of another country.
“It never made a bit of sense for European governments to tax our citizens for flying over our own airspace — and with the passage of this law we’ve got the tools we need to prevent it from happening and protect American jobs,” said Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, a co-author of the bill.
But I like China’s response better.
The EU had also been under pressure from China, one of the world’s fastest growing markets for aircraft, which had threatened to cancel orders of European Airbus aircraft if the EU did not back down from applying its ETS on all airlines.
“That’s a pretty nice aviation industry you got there. Would be a shame if anything happened to it. . .”
The whole piece here.