Are Atlantic Aviation’s good intentions enough to reduce airport emissions?

Editor’s note: This is the first segment of a three-part series analyzing climate solutions within some of the largest industries in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley.

On the ice-covered tarmac of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, Atlantic Aviation’s general manager of operations in Aspen, Jonathan Jones, demonstrated some of the company’s energy-efficient vehicles.

“All of our carts that we use to park airplanes to facilitate services and things like that, are all equipped with electrical equipment,” Jones said.

Atlantic Aviation, the fixed operator of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, operates the general aviation terminal and sells aviation fuel to commercial and private aircraft.

By going electric, upgrading appliances, installing solar power and using renewable diesel where it can, Atlantic Aviation hopes to model energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint.

However, emissions from Atlantic Aviation’s facilities pale in comparison to the warming effect of its aviation fuel sales.

According to Pitkin County, Atlantic Aviation has sold approximately 10 million gallons of aviation fuel over the past year, up from 2023, when Atlantic told the Aspen Time it sold 8 to 9 million gallons per year.

To address this environmental impact, Atlantic Aviation announcement in 2021, it offset these emissions by purchasing carbon credits.

Eric Newman, Atlantic Aviation’s vice president of business strategy and sustainability, says the company is moving away from that strategy and instead focusing on investing funds in local sustainability projects.

“Here’s what it costs to purchase voluntary offsets,” Newman said. “Let’s take these dollars, and instead of spending them on projects that don’t have a noticeable impact locally and are harder to verify, let’s instead partner with community organizations in the Roaring Fork Valley.”

Aviation Atlantic donated $500,000 between 2022 and 2023 at the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) for research on a project to eliminate methane leaks from abandoned sites coal mines near Redstone.

Atlantic Aviation is also studying the feasibility of a sustainable aviation fuel refinery on the western slope.

It remains unclear whether these initiatives will reduce Atlantic Aviation’s carbon footprint in the long term, given the growth of the aviation industry and resulting market trends in energy efficiency.

Jevon’s paradox

When a system becomes more energy efficient, consumption often increases, resulting in little or no change in overall energy consumption – a phenomenon known as the Jevons paradox.

“So it’s not just the shift from a sedan to an SUV that leads to more energy-intensive activity,” said Dr. Aseem Prakash, a professor of political science at the University of Washington, during a phone call. “But we might drive more just because we think we have a more fuel-efficient car.”

In the aviation industry, when planes become more energy efficient, airlines use less fuel, which often leads to lower prices for customers, who can then afford to fly more often.

As a result, American airlines are addition more flights on their schedules, which increases fuel consumption.

Although aviation has historically been considered expensive and reserved for a small portion of the world’s population, it is now one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and ticket prices are becoming more and more accessible.

Atlantic Aviation partners with aerospace companies developing electric planes and studying their commercial feasibility, which could also fall prey to the Jevons Paradox.

Newman said electric planes could be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2025 or 2026. He expects they will be used for cargo transportation first, but eventually they will be used for flights short-haul, some with routes that are not. I’m already seeing a lot of traffic.

“How do you get from the south side of Los Angeles to the north side of Los Angeles, for example? » said Newman. “It could be a three-hour drive. You can ride it in 20 minutes. What does the market look like for doing something like this? How scalable is this? …There is a significant opportunity to prove a new use case.

Effective regulations

According to Dr Prakash, the aviation industry needs more safeguards as energy efficiency improves to avoid the Jevons Paradox.

Taxing passengers on their energy consumption or eliminating frequent flyer miles could dissuade travelers from flying. In Europe, some countries are ban short-haul flights on routes where trains only take a few hours. Some airlines even “demarket” or encourage passengers to use other modes of transportation when possible.

Dr. Prakash said Atlantic Aviation’s local donations and carbon credits can be beneficial, but in addition to these efforts, he encouraged the company to consider environmental action that goes beyond improving energy efficiency.

“If I had to advise them, I would say eliminate carbon, not improve resource efficiency, because that may not lead to reduced emissions,” said Dr Prakash. “It’s a good example of good intentions, but bad results.”

Dr. Prakash imagines companies or individuals with a large carbon footprint developing urban forests that benefit low-income communities, reduce the heat island effect, and act as a carbon sink. People could drive by and monitor the health of these trees, which promotes accountability.

Regarding Atlantic Aviation’s contributions to CORE, the nonprofit’s methane capture project does not remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, it could prevent a very potent greenhouse gas from accelerating the effects of climate change on the Western Slope.

While it may seem contradictory that a company selling aviation fuel would engage in sustainability initiatives, Newman said that as a general aviation executive, Atlantic Aviation must engage in climate solutions.

“At the end of the day, planes are going to fly and someone has to put fuel in them,” Newman said. “What we’re trying to do is allow this transaction to become as sustainable as possible, in as many cases as possible.”

This series is supported by a grant from the Aspen Skiing Company Environmental Foundation. If you have a story idea for our ongoing climate coverage, please contact [email protected].

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