US Senate Passes Bill to Evade EU Airline Emissions Law

September 27th, 2012 by Nicholas Brown

Republican Senator John Thune has sponsored a bill intended to protect the United States from paying the European Union’s tax on flights to that region.

The bill was passed unanimously and it blocks US airlines from paying the European Union for their aviation carbon emissions.

Airplane taking off via Shutterstock.

Nearly all airlines have complied with the law, but India and China strongly oppose it. China threatened to impound European planes out of retaliation if they are punished for failing to pay the EU tax.

John Thune said that the new legislation sent a “strong message” to the European Union that it cannot impose taxes on the United States.

“The Senate’s action today will help ensure that US air carriers and passengers will not be paying down European debt through this illegal tax and can instead be investing in creating jobs and stimulating our own economy,” said Thune.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a similar bill, and may work out the differences between its bill and the Senate’s, or accept the Senate’s bill.

Source: The Guardian

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Tags: ETS, eu airline carbon tax, EU aviation tax, EU carbon emissions tax, EU carbon emissions trading scheme, EU environmental airline tax

About the Author

Nicholas Brown writes on CleanTechnica, Gas2, Kleef&Co, and Green Building Elements. He has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

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Will Poundstone

I have a feeling that the White House will veto this
SirSparks

The answer is simple; Increase landing fees for all planes then give the extra back to companies that comply with Carbon policies.
As Mathew said, we all pay taxes in one form or another, it’s just unfortunate that this one has been named “a tax”. How about we rename it “Anti-Pollution fund”
zleo99

The US: such a bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites. The Great Satan???
Matthew

What a load of crap! I live in Orlando and we charge tourists visiting Disney world all sorts of hidden taxes! Talk about hypocrisy! I hope they ban US flights all together!
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Ha! Good point.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  actually made me lol.
  
  but i think it’s best not to stereotype.