By Paul Dale
Private jets are the most carbon-intensive form of travel per passenger, catering to the ultra-wealthy. They are referred to as super-emitters.
We are looking for volunteers to lead a local campaign in their town or city asking their Select Board or City Council to pass a resolution opposing the expansion of hangars for private jets.
Massport, the owner of Hanscom Field, the largest private jet airport in New England (as distinct from Hanscom Air Force Base), has proposed to build additional hangars on nearly 50 acres for the exclusive use of private luxury travel - which would result in hundreds of thousands of tons of additional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - in opposition to every Climate Goal that our towns, cities, the Commonwealth and the nation have set forth.
Private jet emissions from Hanscom alone already cancel out 50% of the climate benefits from all the solar PV, over 4GW, installed in Massachusetts. An expansion of any size would produce an even greater setback.
In the midst of the climate crisis, it is not appropriate and equitable to expand the use of a form of travel that allows a few ultra-wealthy individuals to contribute dramatically and disproportionately to climate change while municipalities are working arduously to decrease their climate impacts. (For reference: a typical car emits c. 5 tons of CO2e per year where a typical private jet emits c. 20 tons of CO2e per 2.5 hour flight).
The proposed development is simultaneously destructive to the climate, to forest preservation and equity. This is not just a local issue; it is a major state-wide issue, as well as a national issue because other states are waiting to see what happens in Massachusetts.
We are looking for volunteers to lead a local campaign in their town or city asking their Select Board or City Council to pass a resolution opposing the expansion. If there are several volunteers willing and interested in the same municipality we will put them in touch with each other. The more the better.
Resolutions coming from cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth will demonstrate to Gov. Healey that this is not just a NIMBY issue, but a state-wide one because Massport’s expansion plans are a direct and immediate threat to our Commonwealth’s efforts to combat climate change, as would a similar expansion anywhere else.
This is a rewarding campaign for you as a volunteer because the objective (a resolution) is well defined and time limited; you are not asking a municipality to spend money; local actions are logistically much easier than state or national campaigns, and finally because expanding facilities to support super-emitting private jets for the ultra-wealthy is so grievously opposed to emissions mitigation and climate equity this should not be a “hard sell”.
If you are interested, please email muni@stopprivatejetexpansion.org. We have a tool kit that contains sample letters and a sample resolution and we will provide a contact person to support you.
If you might be interested or will consider this, please email us at muni@stopprivatejetexpansion.org and send us your phone number so we can get in touch.
Whether or not you volunteer, please add your own name to the citizen’s petition to Gov. Healey opposing the proposed expansion: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/spje/
Thank you.