Background and History

Introduction

Organizing around Burlington International Airport (BTV) offers an opportunity to make a tangible difference in an area where climate and social justice issues converge.

In the middle of a climate crisis, the Burlington International Airport is growing and has bipartisan support to do so. The City of Burlington, which owns and operates the airport, has no plan to reduce aviation-related emissions and is instead planning for increased flight operations in the coming decades. The airport’s operations, including the basing of the F-35s at the airport, has disproportionately harmed the working class and racially diverse communities around the airport. In addition to welcoming the ear-splitting thrum of the F-35s, the City of Burlington has spent millions of dollars of Federal Aviation Administration funds acquiring and demolishing much-needed housing around the airport, causing deep harm to the Chamberlin Neighborhood and its residents. The airport administration showed once again that they care little about the lives of neighboring residents when they unsuccessfully attempted to expand the footprint of the airport into these former residential housing lots during the winter of 2021-2022. The City of Burlington has shown time and again that it will prioritize the perceived economic impacts of the airport over the lives of area residents and our climate.

We are a small but growing group of climate activists who have identified the levers of power that must be “pulled” in order to make change. We know that the threat of climate change is desperately urgent and that we must unite in a global movement to create systemic change. Yet we also understand that the foundation for a global movement must be local grassroots organizing. We feel that in making the airport a target of our organizing efforts, we can both fight to rebuild the communities that have been so deeply harmed by the activities at the airport while also working to make meaningful reductions to our greenhouse gas emissions. This document lays out our goals and outlines some of the background information to provide interested activists with the fundamentals of the landscape. We hope you will join us in this endeavor.

Ownership and Governance

Burlington International Airport is owned by the City of Burlington and located within the City of South Burlington. All airport operations are controlled by the City of Burlington at the direction of the Burlington City Council. The airport’s operation is administered by Nic Longo, BTV’s Director of Aviation, under the supervision of Miro Weinberger, Mayor of Burlington. Burlington City Council created an advisory body called the Airport Commission that is tasked with providing advice to the City Council on all matters relating to BTV’s operation.

Airport Master Plan and “Sustainability” Report

BTV’s Airport Master Plan projects increases in all types of flight operations in the coming decades and does not include any plan to reduce emissions from aviation. Furthermore, in 2019 BTV drafted a sustainability report detailing the steps it was taking to address BTV’s energy use and environmental impact. This report also does not address any emissions from aviation and focuses exclusively on the impacts from buildings and ground transportation.

After our intense lobbying, we were able to secure another victory—accounting of greenhouse gas emissions at the airport. At the March 28, 2023 Transportation, Energy, and Utilities Committee (TEUC) meeting, Nic Longo and his team presented an update to their sustainability report, which included an accounting of greenhouse gas emissions (pp. 54-71). The report states that in 2019, emissions from the airport totaled 118,538 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). This report is flawed in many ways, including the fact that it uses data for the F35s from 2019, when they completed just a handful of flights. It also ignores the non-CO2 heating effects of aviation, which approximately triple the heating effects of CO2 alone. We still must do a deeper dive into the report to point out all of its inaccuracies.

City of Burlington’s Net Zero Energy Roadmap

Unveiled in 2019, the City of Burlington’s Net Zero Energy Roadmap was billed as “the most ambitious climate goal established by any community in the United States to date.” Just like the airport’s sustainability report, it ignores emissions from aviation and instead defines their net zero goal as relating exclusively to “heating and ground transportation sectors.” Aviation emissions are ignored entirely.

Burlington International Airport Expansion and Recent Events

In December 2021, the airport requested that the City of South Burlington rezone 11 acres of former housing lots from residential use to airport use. This land was acquired by the airport using federal noise mitigation funds. Having acquired these housing lots and demolished over 200 homes, the airport now owns approximately 44 acres of housing lots on the west side of the airport. These former housing lots are presently used for recreation by the remaining local residents who are most harmed by the presence of the F-35s. It was a truly disgraceful request, and thankfully organizing efforts to defeat the zoning request were successful in April 2022. It is likely that the airport will attempt to expand again, as there is nothing preventing them from making a similar request in the future. The Other Paper summarized the rezoning fight in December 2022.

In October 2022, BTV completed major upgrades to its terminals and is planning for future expansions of flight operations. Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Director of Aviation Nic Longo showed enthusiasm about the expansion while greenwashing the true impact of expanded operations.

In December 2022, Director of Aviation Nic Longo stated, “We are growing. That’s a really good thing.”

In December 2022, VTDigger reported that outgoing Senator Patrick Leahy secured $34 million to renovate and expand BTV as part of December’s omnibus spending bill.

In April 2023, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger boasted that Burlington International Airport is the second-busiest airport in New England.

In July 2023, Safe Landing BTV and our allies won an historic victory when Burlington City Council unanimously passed this resolution (pp. 480-482 in the Agenda Packet) to “substantially reduce or eliminate” greenhouse gas emissions from the F-35s by 2030. Here is the beginning of the deliberation, with City Councilor Gene Bergman speaking. City Councilor Mark Barlow responds and then it goes to a vote. Victory!

On April 1, 2024 Emma Mulvaney-Stanak took office as the Mayor of Burlington. While campaigning, Emma promised to “examine the feasibility and impact of banning private aircraft from BTV” and “get rid of the F-35s.” We are waiting for her to follow through on her campaign promises.