California is abandoning its controversial plan to regulate the jet fuel used for 220,000 in-state flights per year, ending the first state attempt to reduce emissions from commercial aviation.
The California Air Resources Board, which regulates air pollution in the nation’s most-populous state, dropped a proposal it made in December that the airline industry strongly opposed and that faced a likely legal challenge.
“There are more effective ways of accomplishing our climate goals,” CARB Communications Director Lys Mendez said in an email. The agency is looking at ways to “incentivize the production of” sustainable aviation fuel and “work directly with the airlines.”
Airlines for America, a trade group for commercial carriers, praised the decision and said the proposal “would have led to higher jet fuel prices.”
