EPA moves to regulate airplane greenhouse gas emissions

(Image credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

In a move that environmentalists hailed as long overdue, the EPA plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from commercial airplanes, the White House announced Wednesday.

The move marks the administration's first step toward applying climate change regulations to the airline industry, though it remains to be seen how strict the EPA's airplane regulations will be. The agency's proposed "endangerment finding," which suggested that aircraft emissions contribute to climate change and therefore threaten public health, does not impose specific regulations, but instead requires the agency to come up with new rules.

Though aviation only makes up 2 percent of global emissions, it's one of the fastest growing sources of global greenhouse gas emissions.