In-flight Discussion

On the flight down to my spring break destination, I was reading an article about certain states filing a petition to have the EPA regulate airline emissions. The man sitting next to me noticed I was reading the article and said he just saw something on ABC news about it. We discussed how it is wrong for government agencies to regulate some forms of transportation and not others. It seems like the EPA turns a blind eye towards aviation when they contribute a great deal to the problem. He told me that California just passed a law restricting the emissions on cargo ships and they were part of the petition, along with the state he worked for, Pennsylvania, to restrict the airlines as well. We agreed that the airlines should have restrictions along the same lines that are placed on motor vehicles and, increasingly, ships and other marine vessels. We also talked about what role the military has in all of this. I brought up the point that even if we restrict the airlines, our armed forces still use air and water craft extensively both for training and tactical maneuvers abroad. We both highly doubt that there will ever be any restrictions on that. It was a very interesting conversation and I didn't know that there were not restrictions on the airlines to reduce their emissions. As air travel becomes increasingly more popular it seems that restrictions not only make sense, but should have already been in place.