Boeing Executive: More Regulations Please

If you listen to talk radio, or to certain oil-state Republicans, or even other bloggers here on BNet.com, you’ll hear that the carbon cap-and-trade program that cleared a House Energy and Commerce Committee vote Tuesday is bad for America, bad for our economy, and certainly bad for business.

So it’s a little surprising that a top executive of one of the nation’s leading global exporters — namely Scott Carson, the CEO of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes business unit — is on the record calling for more regulation.

In a Wall Street Journal Op/Ed piece  that outlines what Boeing’s doing to fight global warming, Carson calls for a global standard for aircraft energy efficiency.  “An efficiency standard would be straightforward and easier to implement than a standard for aircraft operators,” Carson wrote. “And it would help ensure that we continue to see the kind of technological and environmental breakthroughs we pioneered with the 787. The International Civil Aviation Organization should define the new standard, just as it successfully established global standards for both airplane noise and oxides of nitrogen emissions.”

In the essay, Carson goes on to describe Boeing efforts to improve air traffic management, which he says would allow planes to fly more fuel-efficient routes between airports, and also its trials of new bio-fuels, including some that are derived from algae.