Originally Posted by
Skylarking
Serious question, does anyone know how a 50 seat RJ compares with a reasonably modern car? Which has a bigger carbon footprint per mile? If we curtail the short haul 50 seater flights, I'm guessing we'll just incentivize driving? Might be a good thing (carbon footprint wise) if pax travel from COS-DEN in a packed 15 pax shuttle-van. Maybe not such a good thing if the pax all drive their F-150 to DEN.
Serious question: Have you ever looked at the economics for EAS flights? Or the Amtrak station in Fargo ND that gets one Amtrak Empite Builder stopping at 0324 in the morning three nights a week? The train weighs 1.08 MILLION pounds and will
slow from 50 mph to a stop to pick up (or drop off) one passenger, then accelerate back up to 50-70 mph. Just figure the energy requirements of that - and it’s all fossil fuel - and then repeat that for Cutbank Montana and every other little whistle stop on the way to Seattle. DO THE MATH.
Congress doesn’t really give a rats rear about CO2 release. They just want the votes of those who do give a rats rear about carbon release who they can play like the fools they are.