Airport Improvement Program Neg
Airport Improvement Program Neg
Airport Improvement Program Neg
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Inherency
The recent FAA reautorization bill allocated 13.4 billion dollars to AIP
ATW 6/23 ( FAA battle ends with new 4-year reauthorization, Air transport world 2012-06-23
http://proxy.lib.umich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/1021787258?accountid=14667) KY
The long fight over reauthorizing FAA - which had been operating for more than four years via a series of 23 temporary funding extensions - finally came to an end last month with the US Senate's passage of a bill allocating $63.3 billion to the agency through Sept. 30, 2015. After years of controversial votes on the issue, the Senate passed the compromise FAA legislation previously cleared by the House of Representatives by a strong 75-20 tally. President Barack Obama signed it into law Feb. 15. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said, "I think there's general support
in the aviation community for this bill . Nobody got all they wanted, but that's the nature of compromise and compromise was particularly difficult in this bill." While various industry players quibble with certain components of the legislation, most appear pleased that years of uncertainty over airport construction projects and the government's commitment to transitioning to a NextGen ATC system have finally ended. "We commend Congress for passing a responsible bill that recognizes that commercial aviation is central to America's global competitiveness and a key enabler of job growth and US productivity," Airlines for America (A4A) president and CEO Nicholas Calio said."The
bill will help accelerate deployment of the most cost-beneficial NextGen air traffic management system technologies." US Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA) said in a statement that the bill "is critical to FAA operations and offers
stability and predictability to the aviation industry instead of the uncertainty fueled by one short-term extension after another." The passed-bill was rooted in a compromise over airline unionization voting rules reached in late January between Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). The most contentious issue in recent negotiations revolved around efforts by House Republicans to overturn a 2010 rule change by the National Mediation Board (NMB) lowering the threshold for an airline employee groups to unionize.
Republicans backed away from that demand, accepting that airline unionization votes will require a majority of those voting (not a majority of all workers in an employee group, as had been the case before 2010). In
return, Senate Democrats accepted a provision increasing the percentage of workers needed to formally request a unionization vote. "We wrote a four-year [FAA] bill in 2003 that expired [Sept. 30] 2007," House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman John Mica (RFla.) said during the debate on the bill in the House. "These extensions cost the taxpayers millions of dollars Enough is enough. This is about putting people to work and defining federal policy for [aviation]." House
aviation subcommittee top Democrat Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) said the bill passed was far from perfect, but he emphasized the US "desperately" needed a multiyear FAA reauthorization and therefore he supported it. The new law will fund FAA through Sept. 30, 2015. It allocates $13.4 billion for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), $38.3 billion for FAA operations, $10.9 billion for FAA facilities and equipment, and $672 million for research and development. It also outlines goals for implementing a satellite-based, NextGen ATC system, including creating a "chief NextGen officer" position at FAA.
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Economy Advantage
Airlines industry resilient statistics prove
Rice 11 staff writer(Katie, OAG Finds Airlines Resilient in Face of 30 Years of Crises, Travel Pulse, 8 September 11, http://www.travelpulse.com/oag-finds-airlines-resilient-in-face-of-30years-of-crises.html)//FK OAG, which provides detailed data about the airline industry, is reporting in its OAG World Crisis
Analysis that the airline industry has shown surprising resilience given the crises it has had to deal with over the past 30 years. These include terrorism, pandemics and natural disasters. Despite that, according to the report, global airline capacity has grown on average 3.1 percent per year since 1979. OAG also finds that air travel is largely immune to regionalized events such as natural disasters, conflicts and fuel price spikes. In fact, in the vast majority of crises, there was a negligible impact
in global airline capacity; regional level capacity dropped less than 4 percent and recovered within three months. From 1979 to Sept. 11, 2001, world airline capacity was steadily increasing at an average of 5 percent, or 94 million seats, per year. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., world capacity has grown an average of 2.6 percent, or 81 million seats, per year. The World Trade Center attacks in 2001 and the Global Banking crisis of 2008-2009 are the only two events since 1979 that caused significant decreases in global air capacity, averaging a 3 percent and 9 percent drop in capacity and recovering within 36 months and 24 months, respectively. Regionalized events such as the Gulf Wars, swine flu and volcanic eruptions caused on average less than a 4 percent drop in regional airline capacity that recovered within three months or less, with a negligible impact on global capacity. Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, Middle East and China, where growth of the middle class and personal wealth is contributing to increased air travel demand, are driving continued air capacity growth. One would have thought that tragic events in recent years would have dramatically affected air travel capacity for long periods of time, but that simply has not been the case, with only the World Trade Center attacks and Global Banking crises causing major disruptions, said Mario Hardy, vice president-Asia Pacific for UBM Aviation. Difficult lessons learned from past tragedies
have been taken to heart and put to good use by the aviation industry, which is poised to continue growing for the foreseeable future.
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names such as Pan Am, TWA, Braniff, Western, Eastern, PSA, Piedmont and others. Continental is merging with United as we speak. Brancatelli contends since 1979 just two really perennially competitive newcomers have emerged: discount airlines Southwest and JetBlue. While there may be fewer airlines out there, the OAG World Crisis Analysis maintains, air travel is largely immune to regionalised events such as natural disasters, conflicts, and fuel prices hikes immune, that is, from all but the Sept. 11 attacks and the global banking crisis. UBM Aviation CEO Peter von Moltke says the analysis shows how quickly the aviation industry responds and adapts in the
face of almost any disaster, which is reassuring forindustries that depend on aviation. Tourism is one of those industries. Quick bounce-backs by airlines mean carriers can re-forge connections to
vacation destinations comparatively quickly come hurricanes, earthquakes, or volcanic ash, or high water. Brancatelli says, however, that some of those connections can be less competitive simply because there are fewer players. Whats your take? Are there enough seats for sale to where youre headed, and enough competition aloft to make the trip affordable? Tell us what you think.
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Alt causality airline industry will inevitably be vulnerable due to fuel price volatility
FAA, 2011 (Federal Aviation Administration, The Economic Impact of Civil Aviation on the U.S. Economy, August, http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/FAA_Economic_Impact_Rpt_2011.pdf) Megan The highly volatile price of fuel continues to be a major concern for the airline industry and overall economy. In the summer of 2008, jet-fuel prices spiked to record highs, followed quickly by a precipitous drop in the autumn (Figure 4). Oil market speculators drove the increase as did flat U.S. crude petroleum field production, cuts in U.S. refining capacity, declines in Strategic Petroleum Reserve stocks, decreases in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production targets, and political uncertainty in the Persian Gulf, Venezuela, Algeria and Nigeria.13 Prices subsequently fell during the remaining months of 2008 to $53 per barrel in February 2009a 68 percent decline. This decrease was mainly due to the delayed impact of falling overall demand for oil as a result of the recession.14 With the upturn in the economy, the price of jet fuel has slowly risen. In January 2011, the price of jet fuel averaged $110 per barrel. Recent political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East has led to further price increases. While many analysts believe that the oil market will return to more familiar patterns, it should be noted that the increased demand from China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies will likely place upward pressure on the price of energy faced by airlines and by their customers. Moreover, as in all forecasts, some events cannot be foreseen. Recent unrest in the Middle East and Africa has created more uncertainty for all transportation-related services and dampened economic expectations. From December 31, 2010, through March 4, 2011, the spot price of U.S. Gulf Coast jet fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, rose 63 cents per gallon to $3.13, versus an increase of 42 cents per gallon for all of 2010.
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http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2012/apr/02/rising-oil-prices-affecting-airlines-maycause-far-ar-1813741/)//FK Drivers are concerned as gas prices creep near four bucks a gallon. But rising oil prices also are adding millions of dollars in expenses each day for airlines. The trend could lead to airfare price
increases. It also could cause airlines to reduce the number of flights or use smaller crafts with fewer available seats, said Mark Courtney, director of Lynchburg Regional Airport. Higher fuel prices put more pressure on airlines to produce higher revenues per flight to offset the additional losses, he said. Fuel is the largest single cost to airlines and accounts for about 35 percent of expenses,
according to Airlines For America, an industry trade organization. As the busier summer months approach, airlines are waiting to see how much more fuel prices will increase, Courtney said. The biggest determinate there, in my opinion, is the uncertainty, he said. It tends to force the airlines in a wait-and-see mode. Airfare costs have been on the rise recently. Between January 2011 and January 2012, the average fare rose 9 percent, AFA reported. Fuel prices are expected to stay high. Last month, the International Air Transport Associations outlook for the global airline industry increased its expectations for fuel costs in 2012. That organization initially expected fuel to average $99 a barrel this year. Now, it predicts it will cost an average of $115 , a number that could go higher
if tensions in theMiddle Eastworsen. Operations in Lynchburg will stay the same for the time being, according to US Airways, which has six departing and six incoming flights between the city and Charlotte, N.C., a US Airways hub with connections to more than 130 destinations. Were not looking at cutting flights at this time due to fuel prices, said spokesman Todd Lehmacher, although he noted the company remains concerned about fuel costs. Local airfare prices have increased over the past two years, Courtney said, but prices in 2010 were rock bottom due to low demand during the depths of the recession. The average roundtrip fare to the 29 most popular destinations from Lynchburg Regional Airport was $289 as of March 20, he said. In October 2010, the lowest leisure traveler round-trip flight to Las Vegas cost $198 and lowest-priced trip to San Franciscocost $218, he said. More than just fuel prices helped set those fares. Demand was lower then from leisure and business passengers, Courtney explained, forcing airlines to lower rates to attract more travelers. Airfare price increases tend to come from airlines across the board, he said. One company may try an increase in price, but if they other companies dont move, the increased price is often rescinded to stay competitive, he said. While costs have gone up at Lynchburg airport, the fares stayed competitive with other regional airports, Courtney said. While Lynchburg averages $289 per round-trip, Roanoke Regional Airports most recent average roundtrip airfare was $332, he said. This rise in fuel prices comes at a time when fuel efficiency for airlines has greatly increased over the past few years, reducing the amount of fuel used, according to Airlines for America. In 2005, airlines used about 54.7 million gallons of fuel a day. In 2011, it was 48.3 million.
The increase in costs upped the amount spent on fuel. Airlines spent $33.2 billion in 2005 on
fuel, according to data from AFA. By 2011, that increased to $50.5 billion. In recent years, the
spike in fuel prices cut airlines profits. In 2010, American passenger airlines recorded a net profit of $2.7 billion. In 2011, that number dropped to $390 million. Between 2010 and 2011, operating revenue grew 12.6 percent but expenses increased 15.5. Fuel costs rose 36 percent , according to AFA. Courtney said the airport will continue to promote its competitive fare structure and to work with US Airways to benefit the airline and the airport. He said the airport needs to give the best possible air service for the best possible airfare, while remaining profitable for US Airways. Its a balancing act, he said. We have to satisfy the airlines and we have to satisfy the community.
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Airline sector collapse inevitable rising fuel prices and reorganization costs
Smith 12 staff writer(Aaron, American Airlines loses another $1.7 billion, CNNMoney, 19 April 2012, http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/companies/americanairlines/index.htm)//FK NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The parent of American Airlines, which went into bankruptcy last year,
announced a quarterly net loss of $1.7 billion on Thursday, slammed by reorganization costs and rising fuel prices. The loss was more than quadruple the carrier's loss from a year earlier, when AMR Corp. reported a net loss of $405 million in the first quarter of 2011. AMR said the part of the loss
stemmed from $1.4 billion in reorganization costs in the latest quarter. The company said the costs were related to its bankruptcy filing from last Nov. 29. The largest chunk of those costs -some $1 billion - is related to the rejection of eight aircraft leases and eight aircraft engine leases, and the modification of 158 aircraft leases, the airline said. Merger hangover continues to pain United American was also hit by rising fuel prices. The company said that it paid $3.24 per gallon of jet fuel in the first quarter of 2012, a 17% increase from $2.76 in the year-earlier quarter. The airline said this equated to an increase in costs of $325 million. While American Airlines didn't specifically mention
job cuts in its quarterly report, the carrier said in February that it was cutting 13,000 positions from its overall staff of 88,000. Layoffs, especially when they happen en masse, typically cost a lot of money for the company that's handing out the severance packages.
They have the causal relationship reversed the air transportation industry depends on the recovery of the economy not the other way around
FAA 11 (Federal Aviation Administration, The Economic Impact of Civil Aviation on the U.S. Economy, U.S. Department of Transportation, http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/FAA_Economic_Impact_Rpt_2011.pdf)//FK Economic recovery in the air transportation industry depends heavily on the economic recovery of the rest of the economy, the willingness and financial ability of individuals and businesses to undertake travel, and the need for air-freight services. As the overall economy improves
and as more individuals and businesses are willing and able to travel, more arrangements are made for trips to be completed at a future date. Therefore, economic movements in the air transportation industry generally lag movements in the rest of the economy. The recent growth in the economy is leading to increases in airline operating revenues and RPM, 21 but not industry employment. Airline industry employment is in decline and could continue to fall even as the industry recovers. Airline employment has fallen since reaching a peak in 2000, before the onset of the U.S. recession in 2001 and the ensuing terrorist attacks on September 11.
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can no longer pretend that anything short of a full-blown rescue is needed. Now it's Spain's turn to insist that it doesn't need a bailout, just a loan of a hundred billion euros or so to shore up its banks while it restructures its finances and economy - but nobody believes that any longer. Soaring bond yields suggest that both Spain and Italy are at risk of losing access to the bond markets soon, despite the latest attempts by European leaders to prevent the crisis from spreading beyond Greece. On Saturday, eurozone finance
ministers agreed to lend Spain as much as 100 billion euros to prop up its banks, which face the twin dangers of mounting bad debts and dwindling deposits. And on Sunday, Greek voters elected new leaders willing to accept harsh public spending cuts and sweeping changes to its economy in exchange for financial aid. The very next day, the yield on 10-year Spanish government bonds rose to more than 7 per cent, while the 10-year Italian government bond yield topped 6 per cent. As their cost of borrowing spirals higher, Spain
and Italy - respectively the fourth and third biggest economies in the eurozone - are trapped in a vicious circle of rising debt and falling credit-worthiness that makes it increasingly expensive and difficult for them to roll over their debt. This threatens to crush their economies, unless outsiders come to their rescue. At 1.07 trillion euros, Spain's economic output is nearly five
times that of Greece, based on 2011 economic data compiled by the International Monetary Fund; Italy's economy is bigger yet, at 1.58 trillion euros. Together, Spain and Italy account for 28 per cent of the eurozone's 9.42-trillion-euro economy.
The collapse of
both economies would be disastrous for Europe - and the rest of the world. That doesn't seem lost on the has been heavily criticised for opposing more drastic measures to contain the crisis, such as selling bonds jointly backed by all 17 eurozone member countries to help its weaker members. But
rest of Europe's leaders. Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under severe political pressure at home from German voters not to spend their money rescuing what they see as profligate neighbours. As the Greeks showed when they forced out former prime minister George Papandreou late last year, popular sentiment cannot be easily dismissed. Still, news reports from the G-20 summit in Mexico yesterday suggested that
Germany may soon soften its stance, allowing its heavily indebted neighbours to borrow directly from the eurozone's bailout fund. By fits and starts, Europe's leaders are again struggling to contain the crisis. Before long, it may be too late.
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Eurozone crisis kills US & world economy and prevents aircraft manufacturing
Dawson 11 US Specialist Economics Editor at Thomson Reuters (Stella, 11/30/11, Scenarios: Impact of euro zone crisis on U.S. economy, Reuters,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/us-usa-economy-scenariosidUSTRE7AT1V720111130)//Bwang
A serious slowdown throughout the European Union would lessen its import appetite, hurting China. The European Union is China's largest export market, so a euro-zone recession would cause a slowdown in China, dragging down other Asian countries which increasingly feed China's manufacturing machine, and thus would drive a global economic slowdown. Wells Fargo estimated that a slowing Europe would dampen demand for commodities, hitting coal mining in West Virginia and precious metals in Utah. Auto and aircraft parts manufacturing in Kentucky, Connecticut, Washington, South Caroline and Alabama would be affected. Key service sectors also are likely to be affected -- tourism, finance, entertainment, software and engineering. This would hit New York, California Florida, Texas and the Carolinas. Mark Vitner,
to fall apart, and I can't see them fixing it either." FINANCIAL MELTDOWN: A
Wells Fargo senior economist, predicts a rolling euro-zone crisis that affects the U.S. economy like a low-grade fever, not bad enough to fell it. "We are really going to be bumping along from crisis to crisis," he said. "I can't see European leaders allowing it
causes a 40 percent decline in world equity prices, a widening of credit spreads by 350 basis points in some euro-zone countries, plunging business and consumer confidence, and a global downturn. IMPACT: U.S. GDP growth lowered by 2.05 percentage points in 2012 and by 2.77 points in 2013, accompanied by deflation or disinflationary pressures. Unemployment, currently at 9 percent, would rise by at least two percentage points in 2013. Developed country GDP would be 5 percent lower by 2013. The OECD is the first agency to provide a detailed forecast of the possible impact of the euro-zone crisis spiraling out of control. The picture could turn even uglier, depending upon the policy response. If euro area countries stuck to their fiscal tightening, a further 2.5 percentage points would be robbed from U.S. GDP in 2013; and if one or several countries were seen at risk of leaving the euro zone, higher interest rates on debt and bank runs would add to instability. Exit would cause political, economic and market upheaval. " Such turbulence in Europe, with the massive wealth destruction, bankruptcies and a collapse in confidence in European integration and cooperation, would most likely result in a deep depression in both the exiting and remaining euro area countries, as well as in the world economy,"
the OECD said on Monday.
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Our nation is rapidly approaching a point from which there's little chance to avoid a financial collapse. The heart of our problem can be seen as a tragedy of the commons.
That's a set of circumstances when something is commonly owned and individuals acting rationally in their own self-interest produce a set of results that's inimical to everyone's long-term interest. Let's look at an example of the tragedy of the commons phenomenon and then apply it to our national problem. Imagine there are 100 cattlemen all having an equal right to graze their herds on 1,000 acres of commonly owned grassland. The rational self-interested response of each cattleman is to have the largest herd that he can afford. Each cattleman pursing similar self-interests will produce results not in any of the cattlemen's longterm interest overgrazing, soil erosion and destruction of the land's usefulness. Even if they all recognize the dangers, does it pay for any one cattleman to cut the size of his herd? The short answer is no because he would bear the cost of having a smaller herd while the other cattlemen gain at his expense. In the long term, they all lose because the land will be overgrazed and made useless . We can think of the federal budget
as a commons to which each of our 535 congressmen and the president have access. Like the cattlemen, each congressman and the president want to get as much out of the federal budget as possible for their constituents. Political success depends upon "bringing home the bacon." Spending is popular, but taxes to finance the spending are not. The tendency is for spending to rise and its financing to be concealed through borrowing and inflation. Does it pay for an individual congressman to say, "This spending is unconstitutional and ruining our nation, and I'll have no part of it; I will refuse a $500 million federal grant to my congressional district"? The answer is no because he would gain little
or nothing, plus the federal budget wouldn't be reduced by $500 million. Other congressmen would benefit by having $500 million more for their districts. What about the constituents of a principled congressman? If their congressman refuses unconstitutional spending, it doesn't mean that they pay lower federal income taxes. All that it means is constituents of some other congressmen get the money while the nation spirals toward financial ruin, and they wouldn't be spared from that ruin because their congressman refused to participate in unconstitutional spending. What we're witnessing in Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and other
parts of Europe is a direct result of their massive spending to accommodate the welfare state. A greater number of people are living off government welfare programs than are paying taxes. Government debt in Greece is 160 percent of gross domestic product. The other percentages the question for us: Is the U.S. moving in a direction toward or away from the troubled EU nations? It turns out that our national debt, which was 35 percent of GDP during the 1970s, is now 106 percent of GDP, a level not seen since World War II's 122
of GDP are 120 in Italy, 104 in Ireland and 106 in Portugal. As a result of this debt and the improbability of their ever paying it, their credit ratings either have reached or are close to reaching junk bond status. Here's
percent. That debt, plus our more than $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, has led Standard & Poor's to downgrade our credit rating from AAA to AA+, and the agency is keeping the outlook at "negative" as a result of its having little confidence that Congress will take on the politically sensitive job of tackling the same type of entitlement that has turned Europe into a basket case. I am all too afraid that Benjamin Franklin correctly saw our nation's destiny when he said, "When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
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The excitement about toppling Col Gadaffi is understandable, but a distraction from our real troubles. I have significant reservations about the intervention, but he was a brute and it's good to see the end of him. In the long run, though, the ongoing financial crisis will probably prove to be much more important to our lives. We shouldn't lose sight of it. We may be witnessing the start of a double-dip recession, or even the end of the beginning of another Great Depression. What happened? The Mises Institute blog has posted a fabulous speech by Ludwig von Mises this week. Given in 1931, Mises spoke on "The Causes of the Economic Crisis" (PDF, pp. 155182). Then, as now, a secondary economic crash pushed the
world deeper into recession. It was avoidable, but not by the time it became apparent to the world. Sometimes you cannot undo the mistakes of the past. Massive malinvestments caused by central banks "underbidding interest rates" (in Mises's terms) can only be undone through business failure, however painful. Bailing businesses out simply prolongs the pain. As usual, Mises is on the money here: The severe convulsions of the economy are the inevitable result of policies which hamper market activity, the regulator of capitalistic production. If everything possible is done to prevent the market from fulfilling its function of bringing supply and demand into balance, it should come as no surprise that a serious disproportionality between supply and demand persists, that commodities remain unsold, factories stand idle, many millions are unemployed, destitution and misery are growing and that finally, in the wake of all these, destructive radicalism is rampant in politics. The periodically
returning crises of cyclical changes in business conditions are the effect of attempts, undertaken repeatedly, to underbid the interest rates which develop on the unhampered market. These attempts to underbid unhampered market interest rates are made through the intervention of banking policy by credit expansion through the additional creation of uncovered notes and checking depositsin order to bring about a boom. The crisis under which we are now suffering is of this type, too. However, it goes beyond the typical business cycle depression, not only in scale but also in characterbecause the interventions with market processes which evoked the crisis were not limited only to influencing the rate of interest. The interventions have directly affected wage rates and commodity prices, too. . . . All attempts to emerge from the crisis by new interventionist measures are completely misguided. There is only one way out of the crisis: Forgo every attempt to prevent the impact of market prices on production. Give up the pursuit of policies which seek to establish interest rates, wage rates and commodity prices different from those the market indicates. This may contradict the prevailing view. It certainly is not popular. Today all governments and
political parties have full confidence in interventionism and it is not likely that they will abandon their program. However, it is perhaps not too optimistic to assume that those governments and
parties whose policies have led to this crisis will some day disappear from the stage and make way for men whose economic program leads, not to destruction and chaos, but to economic development and progress. Treating too much debt with more debt or giving reckless banks a bailout is economic homeopathy. There's no post-hoc cure to long-term foolishness. Eventually, you have to pay the piper, and resolve to take the steps necessary to avoid that situation in future. The only solution to our current crisis is to weather the storm. There may be certain types of monetary central planning that are less bad than others, but all are still least-bad ways of doing something the government should have no involvement in. If we're serious about avoiding a repeat in a couple of years, we need to start thinking seriously about how to abolish central banks. It isn't the symptoms we need to fight, it's the disease.
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Environment Advantage
Recent air traffic agreement solves for the worlds aviation impact on the environment
ALPA 10 Collective bargaining representative for over 59,000 pilots of 39 U.S. and Canadian airlines (Air Line Pilots Association, International, July 2010, Aviation Sustainability and the Environment, ALPA White Paper, http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pressroom/inthecockpit/AviationandtheEnvironment WP_7-2010.pdf)//Bwang ICAO is looking at more stringent requirements to combat climate change. At a high-level ICAO meeting in October 2009, states representing 93 percent of global commercial air traffic reached agreement on the following: further reducing aviations impact on the
environment, in cooperation with the air transport industry, through such initiatives as a goal of 2 percent annual improvement in fuel efficiency globally until the year 2050; a global CO2 standard for aircraft; a framework for market-based measures in international aviation ; measures to assist developing states and to facilitate access to financial resources, technology transfer, and capacity building; and continued further work on the development and implementation of alternative fuels for aviation worldwide, which could lead to aviation being the first sector to use sustainable alternative fuels on a global basis.
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Aviation has the least impact on the environment and its impact is declining in the status quo
ALPA 10 Collective bargaining representative for over 59,000 pilots of 39 U.S. and Canadian airlines (Air Line Pilots Association, International, July 2010, Aviation Sustainability and the Environment, ALPA White Paper, http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pressroom/inthecockpit/AviationandtheEnvironment WP_7-2010.pdf)//Bwang
Aviation is a good news story; we safely move hundreds of millions of passengers annually around the world in comfort, at great speed, and with less impact on the environment than any other mode of transportation in history.
that while However, aviation is a visible target and has drawn the attention of numerous groups around the world who condemn the industry for being a driver of projected climate change. As pilots, we deal with facts, and the facts clearly show
aviation is a contributor of greenhouse gas and other emissions, it plays only a very small
role in the overall issue. The industry is poised to make even greater strides in reducing emissions through technology and operating procedures. We believe that the best way to achieve those results is the same way that we have made such great advances thus far , namely, through industrys investments in increasingly advanced technology.
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the Boeing 707, made transcontinental air travel quick and easy, but the fuel efficiency left something to be desired. However, a transcontinental Boeing 777-200 traveling today from New York to Los Angeles will burn less than 10,000 gallons of fuel while carrying 340
passengers. That yields a fuel efficiency of over 75 miles per gallon on the basis of an individual passenger. By contrast, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, in 2007 the average passenger car fuel efficiency was just 22.5 miles per gallon. This outstanding record of environmental achievement has resulted almost entirely from the voluntary actions of the airlines who continually demand new aircraft from the manufacturers that burn less fuel, carry greater payloads, and create less noise. Boeings newest aircraft is the B-787; due to its cutting-edge technology, the aircraft is designed to use 20 percent less fuel, and thereby create 20 percent less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsthan current aircraft of the same size. This aircraft is just one example of the kinds of investments that the airlines make in a very heavily capitalized industry. The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) quantifies these commercial aviation fuel efficiency improvements. Between 1978 and 2008, fuel
efficiency was improved approximately 110 percent, resulting in 2.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) savings, which is roughly equivalent to taking more than 19.5 million cars off the road each year. Between 2000 and 2008, U.S. airlines reduced GHG emissions by 5.5 percent while transporting 17 percent more passengers and cargo.
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Aviations focus on carbon reduction means plan cant solve warming doesnt address other non-carbon emissions
Ribeiro, Kobayashi 07 National Secretary of Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (Suzana, Shigeki, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, 2007, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg3/ar4-wg3-chapter5.pdf)//JS A major difficulty in developing a mitigation policy for the climate impacts of aviation is how to cover non-CO2 climate impacts, such as the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and the formation of condensation trails and cirrus clouds (see also Box 5.1 in section 5.2). IPCC (1999) estimated these effects to be about 2 to 4 times greater than those of CO2 alone, even without considering the potential impact of cirrus cloud enhancement. This means that the perceived environmental effectiveness of any mitigation policy will depend on the extent to which these non-CO2 climate effects are also taken into account.
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Airports have little incentive to participate and little knowledge of AIP environmental programs (VALE)
GAO 08 - Investigative arm of Congress charged with examining matters relating to the receipt and payment of public funds (Government
Accountability Office, Aviation and the Environment: Initial Voluntary Airport Low Emissions Program Projects Reduce Emissions, and FAA Plans to Assess the Programs Overall Performance as Participation Increases, Report to Congressional Committees, 11/7,
of the nonparticipating airports we contacted stated that VALE emission-reduction projects currently are not a high-priority use of AIP funds when compared with airport expansion or improvement efforts. For example, these officials stated that they prefer to use AIP funds for higher-priority safety and airport efficiency and capacity improvement efforts. However, these officials noted that reducing emissions is important for addressing community air quality concerns. In addition, officials at two nonparticipating airports, as well as an official at one airport that has been approved for a VALE project, said that it was their understanding that VALE projects compete for AIP funds with all AIP-eligible projects. Consequently, the two nonparticipating airports chose not to pursue VALE projects and the participating airport has limited the scale of its VALE project to use AIP funds for high-priority projects. FAA officials stated that these airports have a misperception of VALE AIP grants in that VALE projects do not compete with most other types of AIP-eligible projects at airports, because VALE projects are funded through a 35 percent set aside earmarked for noise-abatement and emission-reduction projects. Therefore, VALE AIP grants have no effect on an airports eligibility for other types of AIP grants. ACI-NA officials noted that some airports may not be best positioned to take advantage of the VALE program because they have no relevant capital projects planned or do not need to replace ground service equipment, which has up to a 15-year life cycle. Officials from one of the nonparticipating airports we contacted stated that most of the airports facilities and equipment are relatively new and will not need to be replaced in the near future. Also, officials at the four nonparticipating airports we contacted stated that they already have some of the equipment and facilities that are eligible under VALE. Officials from one airport noted that their airport lacked the expertise to conduct the emissions inventory required to establish a baseline for measuring VALE project emission reductions. FAA officials noted that airports eligible for VALE, including smaller airports with less planning resources, typically can be reimbursed by FAA for project formulation costs, including hiring a contractor to assist in conducting the emissions inventory and preparing the VALE application, if the project is approved. FAA officials and airport officials noted that some airports have been reluctant to seek approval for emission-reduction credits from their state air quality authority, as FAA requires before it will approve a project. According to these officials, some airports have little experience in dealing with their state air quality authority because airport emission reductions previously have not been necessary as part of the CAA SIP. Officials from one airport we visited stated that it is their impression that the state air quality authority will not grant emission-reduction credits for any reason, and, consequently, the airport had not pursued a VALE grant, even though it is currently undertaking a terminal and gate expansion project. According to FAA officials, the guidance that EPA has developed for AERCs provides instructions to state air quality officials on the process and criteria for issuing AERCs to airports.
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is a global industry and requires global solutions. Any environmental measures affecting aviation should be in conformity with the policies being developed international operations. The integrity of the international aviation system is based on the establishment of limits on the ability of any one country to impact the flying rights of another country.
cooperatively by the 190 contracting states of the Chicago Convention through ICAO, including the prohibition against taxing fuel used in
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