Commonwealth Aviation, a flight school at Manassas Regional Airport (KHEF) in Virginia, now offers carbon offsetting for its flight operations as a part of a new environmental program.
Under the new program, customers will be able to purchase carbon offsets for flight time in an effort to move the company to full carbon neutrality.
“The aviation industry plays a key role in addressing the climate crisis,” said Kyle McDaniel, Commonwealth Aviation’s founder. “It’s my hope that this program will spur other local flight schools to take similar steps.”
“According to data provided by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, EPA, and FAA, we know that general aviation contributes less than 1% of all US GHG emissions,” he continued. “We have concluded that an average piston aircraft like a Cessna 172 training aircraft produces approximately 80kg of CO2 per flight hour.”
For $1.50 per hour, customers can offset that pollution, he said.
“We felt the need to take a large step towards carbon neutrality because we owe it to ourselves, our customers, and our community, as we expand our operations address the pilot shortage,” McDaniel said.
Indeed it is very difficult to understand the concept of “For $1.50 per hour, customers can offset that pollution”… it just doesn’t sound right…. as others hace asked… where or to whom does that money go to be able to say….”I’ve helped to offset the polution I provoke”
In my country, if you – let’s say ‘ have a certain surface of forest (by the way, it is the only way to “offset the pollution”) – they have that forest certified. With that certificate, they rent whatever surface needed to offset the pollution. So that would be a way of doing it and really being accountable.
For example, when a road is opened cutting through forest, it is compulsory that who is responsible for that new road, rent the same surface of a certified forest, one that won’t be touched in any way, to make up for that “liability”. It works quite well in this system.
Maybe something like this should be implemented, not just pay without knowing where the money goes.
So you just pay $1.50 and the carbon is offset? Just another gimmick to take more money out of your wallet
So who gets the $1.50 per hour and how does it reduce Greenhouse gasses in any way?
It doesn’t really reduce anything except your bank balance. The whole concept boils down to giving someone else money in exchange for the promise that they (or some third party) will NOT do something in the future that (had they actually done it) would have (according to their logic and calculations) produced the agreed upon amount of carbon.
At best, it is (in my opinion), an opiate for an overly active guilt reflex or, perhaps, some modern-day “red badge of courage”. At worst, it is just a thinly veiled scam, openly endorsed by certain politicians that very likely stand to gain from it. Either way, it does nothing to actually reduce “carbon” in the environment.