Federal Aviation Administration

On November 9, 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration published its Aviation Climate Action Plan, outlining initiatives to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions throughout the U.S. aviation sector. 

The FAA's plan focuses on the following initiatives to achieve its goal:

• Development of new, more efficient aircraft and engine technologies
• Improvements in aircraft operations throughout the National Airspace System
• Production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF)
• Electrification and, potentially hydrogen, as solutions for short-haul aviation
• Advancements in airport operations across the United States
• International initiatives such as the airplane CO₂ standard and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)
• Support for research into climate science.

On June 15, 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking for creating fuel efficiency requirements for certification of certain airplanes. The rulemaking is intended to ensure compliance with EPA’s airplane emission standards for greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. FAA states that because the EPA standard applies to airplanes certificated in the United States even in the absence of the FAA rule, the FAA proposal does not have any incremental benefits, but that it will result in cost savings by enabling U.S. manufacturers to certificate to the EPA standard rather than a foreign authority.