cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1604327

In particular, whatever politicans say, the Republican-controlled House has a rider in the FAA authorization bill which requires airports to continue selling leaded fuel for propeller aircraft forever:

The House version of the bill would require airports that receive federal grants to continue selling the same fuels they sold in 2018 in perpetuity.

While the Democratically-controlled Senate requires a phase-out:

The Senate version would require these airports to continue selling the same fuels they sold in 2022, with a sunset date of 2030 or whenever unleaded fuels are “widely available.”

For context, the FAA approved sale of unleaded fuel for all propeller planes last year, and there are local efforts to ban the sale of leaded fuel in locations where the unleaded fuel is now available

    • SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org
      5·
      1 year ago

      “required for safe operation” aka we’re a bunch of fuds that refuse to change anything.

      They could easily phase it out, but there’s no political will to do so. It would cost money to find a replacement and those poor private plane operators would have to suffer the costs, boo hoo. Anyone living within 1 mile of an airport is being contaminated with lead in the air on a daily basis.

    • Treczoks@lemm.ee
      2·
      1 year ago

      The EU would tackle this by telling those aircraft owners to switch to unleaded fuel somehow, e.g. by fixing or replacing the engine, or put it out of business.