Accelerating the Transition to Lead-free Skies
National Zoom conference December 15, 2022, noon – 3, with participants representing communities affected by lead emissions, aircraft users, airport managers, and federal and local government. Constructive engagement concerning a powerfully charged topic produced a vision of an alignment of interests (cleaner engines, cleaner skies) around the elimination of lead.
View a factsheet (updated 11/23): Leaded Avgas-3
View the conference here: https://mymedia.bu.edu/media/t/1_9e74ni5a
View the program here: Program_Transition-to-Lead-Free-Skies-2022.12.15_Final
Solicitation of Ideas to Share at Accelerating the Transition to Lead-Free Skies
The Boston University class, “Research for Environmental Agencies and Organizations,” and the nonprofit Quiet Communities, Inc., have organized this conference to focus attention on an opportunity to accelerate the transition to unleaded aviation fuels for piston-powered aircraft. Industry has committed to a 2030 phase-out of 100LL leaded fuel, but seven years is too long a time for affected communities.
We invite you to submit your ideas about how this transition can be accelerated, recognizing the need for: adequate and interchangeable lead-free fuel alternatives, regulatory approvals, sufficient manufacturing, storage, and distribution capacities, and possibly, economic incentives. A useful background article by Isabel Goyer appears in Plane & Pilot magazine.
Specific questions to consider are:
- What tools of governance and what private actions should we immediately engage to speed the transition?
- How can we best combine strategies for most rapidly deploying new fuels?
- Where are the bottlenecks and how can we eliminate them?
- What strategic assistance and funding is available?
- What new infrastructure is needed?
- What overarching principles need to be kept in mind as we move forward as quickly as we can, to lead-free skies?
- What other questions should we be asking?
Please send your ideas – no more than one page, please – to: rreibste@bu.edu, with “Avgas” in the Subject line. The ideas will be summarized and presented in a report.
