On a day when many Americans will be reflecting upon how they can reduce their impact on the environment, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will board separate jets in Washington on Earth Day morning to fly 250 miles up the east coast to New York, where they will land at separate airports to attend separate events within a few miles of each other.
The parallel visits of Air Force One (a 747/VC-25 aircraft) and Air Force Two (a 757/C-32A aircraft) will delay dozens, if not hundreds of commercial flights at Kennedy and LaGuardia and other nearby airports as no-fly zones are implemented. Jets will be forced to circle and burn more fuel as they wait for the VIPs to come and go. Their security contingents consisting of dozens of cars, SUVs and helicopters will burn even more. Throw in thousands of commuters’ cars and delivery trucks sitting idle in traffic as law enforcement closes large swaths of the city and you have yourself a very Earth-unfriendly day.
Carbon schmarbon, I’m not flying with that guy!
And somehow this surprises anyone?
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After what just recently happened in Poland, there is some validity to not having the president and vice-president on the same plane.
Americans love kabuki theater as much as the Japanese I would wager. We actually must love it to fund it so heavily.
I believe that’s standard procedure, the President *and* VP are not allowed to fly on the same plane… So what’s the issue here?
Yea, as well all know how well catching the same flight (it was a priceline.com group deal) worked out for the Polish government.
Couldn’t they attend by video conference?
It’s time to USE some of this technology we pay for.
Burn some electrons instead of a pile of jet fuel!
That would make a bigger statement about Earth Day!
Reply #4…you are correct regarding the president and the vice president not allowing to fly in the same plane, but as far as what its going to cost and how much energy it will take to have both the President and VP in New York for Earth Day is kind of the point here. They would be helping the earth much more by staying home and maybe just doing a satelite link or something to that nature if everyone wants to see their face.
Any amount of spending, inconvenience and carbon spewed into the air is worth it to prevent if, God forbid, the President and Vice President were to perish in an accident, our next leader from being President Pelosi.
Is this not normal? It’s a safety issue to ensure both presidents don’t croak in the event of a crash. Hellooooo People!
Why couldn’t they have taken the train?
Scott#8, you stole my thunder.
Good grief. If a plane with both Obama and Biden went down Nancy Pelosi would be President. We shouldn’t even let them be in the same place at the same time.
I don’t think they can ride in the same car either. This is smart to never allow them in the same vehicle. Now if we could just get them both to remain outside of Washington all the time the country might have a chance.
Seriously though…why do they both need to be at any event at the same time…ever? During the state of the union they make one cabinet member stay “home” at an undisclosed location in case of an attack on the capitol. This way the secretary of interior or something gets to be president. Of course at that point it won’t matter.
@scott, #8
Easy fix: make it mandatory that whenever both Prez & VP fly together Pelosi must tag along also. Who wants Biden as Prez anyway? 2 birds, 1 stone…(just to be absolutely clear, I never advocate violence, it solves nothing, violence begets violence, and whoever replaces the prez will just continue the same crap policies anyway).
Seriously, the US government respecting Earth Day is a huge joke on the face of it. As if two separate jets to new york from dc doesn’t pale in the face of what the military contributes in emissions every day. Yet people expect the government to solve global warming when it is the #1 contributor to the problem. Ha!
Not an issue. I am a conservative who cares for neither Obama nor Biden. The President and the Vice President must be on separate airplanes. Personally I think that they should both stay home, but if they have to go anywhere it should be on separate rides. All we need is some Al Qaeda to take out our country’s leadership just because we wanted to have the President and Vice President “car pool”.
Most large companies (and some small ones) also prohibit their top officers from traveling together.
Maybe the President could just move to a secure location and run the country by iPhone… I’ve heard that’s feasable…
Not amused, dismissed as drivel.
I consider the president and vice president travel arrangements special because well, they’re THE president and vice president.
Although, I can kind of see why you wouldn’t want them on the same plane.
I under stand why they did what they did but it still stinks. The amount of carbon some people burn is obscene and the worst cases are usually champions of man made global warming.