U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Aligns Aircraft Engine Emissions Standards With United Nations and Considers Increasing Stringency in the Future

January 2023

Environmental, Energy & Climate Change Law and Regulation Reporter, Volume 3, Number 4

On November 23, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule setting particulate matter emission standards and standardizing test procedures for certain classes of engines used by civil subsonic jet airplanes to replace the existing smoke standard for those engines. See Control of Air Pollution From Aircraft Engines: Emission Standards and Test Procedures, 87 Fed. Reg. 225, 72313 (Nov. 23, 2022) (amending 40 C.F.R. Parts 9, 87, 1030, 1031). These new particulate matter emission standards and test procedures are the same as the engine standards adopted by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 2017 and 2020, and will apply both new type design aircraft engines and in-production aircraft engines. The Final Rule became effective on December 23, 2022, and will be implemented starting January 1, 2023.

Subscribers to the Environmental, Energy & Climate Change Law and Regulation Reporter can read the full article here.