[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1956 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1956

   To prohibit operators of civil aircraft of the United States from 
participating in the European Union's emissions trading scheme, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            December 7, 2011

   Mr. Thune introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To prohibit operators of civil aircraft of the United States from 
participating in the European Union's emissions trading scheme, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``European Union Emissions Trading 
Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The European Union has unilaterally imposed an 
        emissions trading scheme (in this section referred to as the 
        ``ETS'') on non-European Union aircraft flying to and from, as 
        well as within, Europe.
            (2) United States airlines and other United States aircraft 
        operators will be required under the ETS to pay for European 
        Union emissions allowances for aircraft operations within the 
        United States, over other non-European Union countries, and in 
        international airspace for flights serving the European Union.
            (3) The European Union's extraterritorial action is 
        inconsistent with long-established international law and 
        practice, including the Chicago Convention of 1944 and the Air 
        Transport Agreement between the United States and the European 
        Union and its member states, and directly infringes on the 
        sovereignty of the United States.
            (4) The European Union's action undermines ongoing efforts 
        at the International Civil Aviation Organization to develop a 
        unified, worldwide approach to reducing aircraft greenhouse gas 
        emissions and has generated unnecessary friction within the 
        international civil aviation community as it endeavors to 
        reduce such emissions.
            (5) The European Union and its member states should instead 
        work with other contracting states of the International Civil 
        Aviation Organization to develop such an approach.
            (6) There is no assurance that ETS revenues will be used 
        for aviation environmental purposes by the European Union 
        member states that will collect them.
            (7) The United States Government expressed these and other 
        serious objections relating to the ETS to representatives of 
        the European Union and its member states during June 2011, but 
        has not received satisfactory answers to those objections.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON PARTICIPATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION'S EMISSIONS 
              TRADING SCHEME.

    The Secretary of Transportation shall prohibit an operator of a 
civil aircraft of the United States from participating in any emissions 
trading scheme unilaterally established by the European Union in any 
case in which the Secretary determines the prohibition to be, and in a 
manner that is, in the public interest.

SEC. 4. NEGOTIATIONS.

    The Secretary of Transportation, the Administrator of the Federal 
Aviation Administration, and other appropriate officials of the United 
States Government shall, as appropriate, use their authority to conduct 
international negotiations and take other actions in the public 
interest to ensure that operators of civil aircraft of the United 
States are held harmless from any emissions trading scheme unilaterally 
established by the European Union.

SEC. 5. CIVIL AIRCRAFT OF THE UNITED STATES DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``civil aircraft of the United States'' has 
the meaning given that term under section 40102(a) of title 49, United 
States Code.
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