I chatted with the line guys on the ramp in the Wilmington, Delaware airport. The election of Joe Biden to Vice President has caused some changes to the airspace. There is a permanently restricted area of airspace to the NW of the airport, around Biden’s weekend house. The airport gets shut down every time Biden commutes home at taxpayer expense. What kind of plane does Biden, a tireless advocate of reduced carbon emissions (source), use for the 15-minute flight from D.C.? “Boeing 757”, was the report from the ramp, “You wonder how the government can criticize private companies for using light jets when they themselves ride solo in the back of a 757.”
[Note: the shortest version of the Boeing 757 can hold up to 234 passengers plus a crew of at least 7 (source).]
Are you referring to the New Castle Airport? I write from Italy and I am trying to take a deeper look into the matter, so I searched for Wilmington Airport and I found just the one I cited.
Thank you.
Max: It is New Castle: http://www.airnav.com/airport/kilg for more info. Note that the airport is also home to an Air National Guard base with, most prominently, a bunch of C-130 cargo planes (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Castle_Air_National_Guard_Base ).
Phil, don’t you know carbon reduction is only for little people? Not for important people like Biden and Gore.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper and faster for him to fly the 80 or so mile trip on a helicopter?
Not arguing for or against, but you might reasonably expect some sort of zero sum
argument to emerge if one took these guys to task for not practicing what they
preach. In other words, what’s a 757 worth of jet fuel if I can “move” the
problem by a couple gallons per driver month across all the US. At least
that’s the cheap escape route I would take if I was a practicing & preaching
“Green” caught with my hand in the fuel tank.
Mr Gore is also notorious for keeping his motorcade of SUV’s running when he is giving a speech – with the air conditioning on – for a quick cool getaway.