Massport and prospective developers have packaged their 522,000-square-foot Hanscom expansion as a model of “sustainable aviation” to distract the public and policymakers. However, building more hangars for super-emitting private jets during a climate crisis is indefensible.
Massport CEO Rich Davey joined the Hanscom Area Town Select Boards (HATS) meeting for the first time on January 28, where state and town officials discussed the proposed Hanscom expansion and sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). Mark Sandeen, chair of HATS, noted that the approximately 75 additional private jets at the proposed facility would generate more greenhouse gas emissions than all of those from Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Lincoln combined, saying, “You’re looking at a group of people here who dedicated decades of their lives to reducing the emissions of their towns, and to see one project wipe out any possibility of success. … We don’t view that as small.”
SAFs have been promoted by Massport and their developers as the solution for lowering emissions, a view disputed by a CBS report, “How are airports ‘greenwashing’ their reputations,” and a webinar on SAFs sponsored by Sierra Club Mass. State Sen. Mike Barrett suggested to Davey that there is a sense in which they were rolling out SAFs as a shield and in order to disarm us, which Davey denied.
Christopher Eliot, chair of Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, spoke about SAFs’ lack of technical merit. Among other problems, providing the source material for them will simply overextend the agricultural capacity.
Eliot concluded that the only acceptable solution is the status quo, as indicated by the fact that over 14,000 people across Massachusetts have signed the Stop Private Jet Expansion’s petition. State Rep. Simon Cataldo concurred, referring to the developer’s rejected Draft Environmental Impact Report, asking, “At what point does Massport just say no?”
Janet Miller
Main Street
