House Transportation Committee leaders introduced legislation to ban U.S. air carriers from participating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme

, which would tax any civil aviation operators landing in or departing from EU airports. Noting that "all airlines would be forced to participate in the EU's emissions scheme despite the objections of the United States Government and now Congress," a Transportation Committee statement called its legislation--the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011--"a strong response" to the European Union. Recently, the Air Transport Association asked the European Court of Justice to declare the scheme "illegal."