FAA EAGLE Fails to Deliver

Miki Barnes
June 7, 2024

On 2/23/2022 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the formation of Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE), an FAA/industry partnership which laid claim to the ostensible goal of ending the use of leaded aviation fuel by 2030.

The list of industry partners in this undertaking reads like a Who's Who of the most egregious leaded aviation fuel polluters in the world. These groups and their members, with the support of the FAA, are largely responsible for pumping a million pounds of lead into the atmosphere every single year. These organizations have proved to be far more committed to maintaining the toxic status quo than they are to stopping the use of leaded aviation fuel.

• Airport Owner and Pilots Association (AOPA)
• National Air Transportation Association (NATA)
• Helicopter Association International (HAI)
• American Petroleum Institute (API)
• National Business Aviation Association (NBAA)
• General Aviation and Manufacturers Association (GAMA)
• Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)
• American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE)

The initiative is led by two co-chairs. Lirio Lui was chosen to represent the FAA. The industry side, however, has had three co-chairs in the less than two and a half years since the group's inception.

• The current EAGLE co-chair, Curt Castagna, is embroiled in legal challenges. According to a 5/24/2024 AVweb article, "National Air Transportation Association (NATA) President and co-chair of the End Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) Curt Castagna has allegedly been fired by his former employer and is being sued for damages related to his longtime employment there. According to court documents filed in California earlier this month by his employer, Aerolease Associates LLC, Castagna was fired on April 30. The court filing includes a long list of allegations regarding Castagna's operation of a business of his own while he was working for Aerolease. Aerolease has its head office at Long Beach and operates, leases and manages hangars at Van Nuys Airport."

  Bear in mind that out of 20,000 airports nationwide, Long Beach is the second most lead polluted airport in the country and Van Nuys ranks seventh. See Top 100 Lead Polluting Airports for additional details.

  To access the article in its entirety click here.
  To access the legal complaint filed by Aerolease click here.
  To access a press release on this development click here.

• Prior to Castagna, the industry co-chair was Mark Baker, CEO of AOPA. For years, AOPA has actively promoted aviation lead poisoning even though multiple studies have revealed that children living in proximity to airports that service piston-engine aircraft have elevated blood lead levels, in some cases rivaling those detected in children during the Flint water crisis. To view a copy of one of the many Santa Clara County legal arguments filed in response to AOPA's complaint about the County's decision to ban the sale of leaded fuel at Reid Hillview and San Martin airports click here.

  Baker also provided false information before a 3/09/2023 Congressional Subcommittee Hearing on Transportation and Infrastructure. For more information on this see the 4/24/2024 Oregon Aviation Watch posting, AOPA President, Leading by Example, Deliberately Misinforms Congress by Gary Keller and Mike Seeber.

• The first industry co-chair, Robert Olislagers, formerly served as the executive director of the Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado. During his tenure, among 20,000 airpor ts nationwide, the EPA ranked Centennial as the fourth most lead polluted airport in the nation.

None of these co-chairs exhibited any real intention of ridding the world of this pernicious neurotoxin. Their actions and utterances were designed to create the pretense of legitimacy while, in fact, they have continued to weave a web of public deception. Their deeply entrenched commitment to promoting aviation cronyism and big oil interests are now and always have been the defining features of the EAGLE initiative.

The sorry history of the FAA's decades-long failure to remove lead from aviation fuel has prompted outcry from innumerable sources including Rick Durden, Senior Editor of Aviation Consumer, who penned an article entitled Unleaded Avgas: EAGLE Malfeasance? (Access to the full article requires a subscription). In his February 2024 editorial, Durden criticized the FAA and EAGLE for their lack of transparency, especially since the initiative is funded with taxpayer dollars. He further spoke of their willful foot dragging. His closing remarks well sum up the best way forward:

"EAGLE, it's time for you to recognize reality. G100UL avgas works. It is a fleet-wide, drop-in replacement for 100LL and is compatible with 100LL. Get rid of your not invented here prejudice; recognize your fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers; make G100UL an EAGLE fuel; declare victory and disband."