Environmentalists say the Senate's approval of a bipartisan bill to bar U.S. airlines from participating in a European greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program puts pressure on the United States to reach an international deal on aircraft GHG limits or for EPA to set such limits, as a Democratic rider to the bill lists those two outcomes as key steps for U.S. regulators to take to shield domestic airlines from penalties for not complying with the trading program. EPA has stalled on making a decision on whether to regulate aircraft GHGs through a Clean Air Act rulemaking, while the United States is also working through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on a potential global agreement on limiting aircraft GHGs - though the fate of both options remains highly unclear.
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