Coalition asks for avgas extension

Leaders from the general aviation and petroleum industries recently formed a coalition to work together and develop a process to reduce lead emissions from GA aircraft, balancing environmental benefit with aviation safety, technical feasibility, and impact upon the GA industry, according to a report at AOPA.org.

The story notes that the group wants to ensure that a stable aviation fuel supply exists in the near term while a long-term solution is identified, certified, and implemented. At this stage, all potential solutions, including lower octane fuels, higher octane candidates, and chemical or bio additives, remain possible options. The group’s first action was requesting a 120-day extension to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advance notice of proposed rulemaking. The story, which you can read in full here, notes:

“The extension will allow time to gather and evaluate data from the Coordinating Research Council on an ultra-low-lead fuel as a possible near-term interim solution, and to provide aircraft and engine manufacturers time to further assess the technical, economic, safety, and performance impacts associated with the possibility of moving to an unleaded fuel in the long term.”