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merging trends in airport environmental policy go beyond typical “green” topics as understood by today’s media. In particular, new climate change legislation in the USA and elsewhere means major challenges for airport management worldwide. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in March 2009 proposed a greenhouse gas reporting rule that requires airport operators to track their emissions, which will likely have a noticeable effect on the nature of new capital projects at airports. More recently, the US House of Representatives passed its first bill on climate change, the guiding principle of which is that heat-trapping gases are a danger to public health. The EPA rule makes it mandatory to report any stationary sources emitting more than 25,000 annual tons of CO2 equivalents. Exemption is available if the capacity of stationary combustion equipment (boilers, generators
and incinerators, for example) is below 30 million BTUs (British Thermal Units), but all airport operators exceeding this will have to conduct a time-consuming emissions inventory. The 30 large-hub airports across the USA are all expected to require such an inventory, data collection for which will begin in 2010. Change ways or change climate On top of the EPA rule, the central feature of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (also known as the Waxman-Markey Bill) is its Cap-and-Trade Program which puts a market price on carbon use and will therefore encourage investment in energy efficiency and emissions controls. This program will not initially apply to airports because they are not considered an industrial source of pollution. But airports and airlines now each face higher costs since their energy suppliers are liable to Cap-and-Trade
12_EDGE The Journal of Jacobs Consultancy, Transport and Infrastructure
and will have to raise prices accordingly. Furthermore, there is the strong possibility that the EPA rule will be widened to apply the Waxman-Markey greenhouse gas standards to stationary combustion equipment at airports. Greenhouse gas regulation is not the only legislative force impacting on airport operators. There has been regulation on air pollutants for four decades, dating back in the USA to the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. Federal air quality standards are established for carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulphur dioxide, lead and particulate matter as small as 2.5 microns in diameter. The rules of the Clean Air Act can now require airport operators to assess air quality impacts when they amend their airport layouts or airlines change operating specifications. Air quality assessments also involve identifying emissions sources affected by proposed