Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) criticized the Obama administration’s misguided priorities after the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would seek regulations on exhaust from commercial airplanes.
Sasse issued a press release Wednesday afternoon decrying the administration and the EPA for its attention on airplane exhaust just days after a DHS investigation illuminated the threat of weapons and explosives being snuck through TSA checkpoints.
"The Obama administration doesn’t know how to set priorities: This week—as the public learned more about the clear threat of having bombs smuggled onto the front of planes—the White House decided that the nation’s really urgent aircraft issue is the exhaust coming out the backend of planes," Sasse said.
The action, detailed in an EPA Regulatory Announcement, would be the "first steps" in addressing the "greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from certain classes of engines used in aircraft" that "contribute to the air pollution that causes climate change and endangers public health and welfare under section 231(a) of the Clean Air Act."
The EPA claims it is not yet proposing aircraft engine GHG emission standards as it has previously done for both cars and trucks.
U.S. aircraft emit "3 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions" according to the regulatory announcement.
Sasse drew attention to the TSA and its failure to detect smuggled weapons and explosives in 67 cases out of 70 attempts.
Sasse has called for the declassification of the full DHS report on TSA failures, part of which was released last week.