Editor’s Note: This is the first segment in a three-part series analyzing climate solutions within some of the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valley’s biggest industries.
On the ice-covered tarmac at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, general manager of Atlantic Aviation’s Aspen operation, Jonathan Jones, showcased some of the company’s energy-efficient vehicles.
“All of our carts that we use to park aircraft to facilitate services and things like that, that’s all done with electric equipment,” Jones said.
Atlantic Aviation, the fixed-base operator of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, manages the general aviation terminal and sells aviation fuel to commercial and private planes.
By going electric, upgrading appliances, installing solar, and using renewable diesel where they can, Atlantic Aviation hopes to model energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint.
However, emissions from Atlantic Aviation’s facilities pale in comparison to the warming effect of its aviation fuel sales.
According to Pitkin County, Atlantic Aviation sold roughly 10 million gallons of aviation fuel in the past year, up from 2023 when Atlantic told the Aspen Times it was selling 8-9 million gallons annually.
To address this environmental impact, Atlantic Aviation announced in 2021 it was offsetting these emissions by purchasing carbon credits.
Eric Newman, Atlantic Aviation’s vice president of commercial strategy and sustainability, says the company is moving away from that strategy and instead focusing on investing funds in local sustainability projects.
“Here’s what it costs to buy voluntary offsets,” Newman said. “Let's take those dollars, and instead of spending them to projects that are not noticeably impactful locally and are harder to verify, let's instead partner with community organizations in the Roaring Fork Valley.”
Atlantic Aviation donated $500,000 between 2022 and 2023 to the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) for research into a project to eliminate methane leaking from abandoned coal mines near Redstone.
Atlantic Aviation is also researching the feasibility of a sustainable aviation fuel refinery on the Western Slope.
Whether these initiatives will reduce Atlantic Aviation’s carbon footprint long term remains unclear considering the growth of the aviation industry and market trends resulting from energy efficiency.
Jevons paradox
When a system becomes more energy efficient, consumption often rises, resulting in little to no change in overall energy use — a phenomenon known as the Jevons paradox.
“So it's not only the transition from a sedan to an SUV that leads to a more energy-intensive activity,” Dr. Aseem Prakash, a political science professor at the University of Washington, said in a phone call. “But one could be driving more just because one thinks one has a more fuel-efficient car.”
In the aviation sector, when planes become more energy efficient, airlines use less fuel, which often results in price cuts for customers, who can then afford to fly more often.
As a result, airlines in the U.S. are adding more flights to their schedules, which increases fuel consumption.
While flying has historically been considered cost prohibitive and reserved for a small portion of the global population, it’s now one of the world’s fastest-growing industries, and ticket prices are becoming increasingly accessible.
Atlantic Aviation is partnering with aerospace companies that are developing electric planes and researching their market feasibility, which could also fall prey to the Jevons paradox.
Newman said electric planes could be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2025 or 2026. He expects they’ll first be used for cargo shipping, but eventually, they’ll be employed for short-haul flights, some with routes that don’t already see a lot of traffic.
“How do you get from the south side of L.A. to the north side of L.A., for example?” Newman said. “That could be a three-hour drive. You can fly it in 20 minutes. What does the market look like to do something like that? How scalable is that? … There's meaningful opportunity there to prove a new use case.”
Effective regulations
According to Dr. Prakash, the aviation industry needs more guardrails as energy efficiency improves to avoid the Jevons paradox.
Taxing passengers on their energy consumption or eliminating frequent flyer miles could disincentivize flying. In Europe, some countries are banning short-haul flights on routes where the trains only take a few hours. Some airlines are even “demarketing,” or encouraging passengers to use other modes of transportation when possible.
Dr. Prakash said Atlantic Aviation’s local donations and carbon credits can be beneficial, but in addition to these efforts, he encouraged the company to consider environmental action that goes beyond boosting energy efficiency.
“If I were to advise them, I would say you'll have to remove carbon, not improve resource efficiency, because that may not lead to reduced emissions,” Dr. Prakash said. “It's a good example of good intentions, but bad outcomes.”
Dr. Prakash imagines companies or individuals with big carbon footprints developing urban forests that benefit low-income communities, reduce the heat island effect, and act as a carbon sink. People could walk by and monitor the health of these trees, which promotes accountability.
Regarding Atlantic Aviation’s contributions to CORE, the nonprofit’s methane capture project doesn’t remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, it could prevent a highly potent greenhouse gas from hastening the effects of climate change on the Western Slope.
While it may seem contradictory for a company selling aviation fuel to engage in sustainability initiatives, Newman said as a steward of general aviation, Atlantic Aviation needs to engage with climate solutions.
“Ultimately, the aircraft are going to fly and somebody needs to put the fuel in them,” Newman said. “What we're trying to do is enable that to become as sustainable of a transaction as possible, in as many cases as possible.”
This series is supported by a grant from the Aspen Skiing Company's Environment Foundation. If you have a story idea for our ongoing climate coverage, please reach out to news@aspenpublicradio.org.
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