02/06/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 02/06/2024 12:44
February 6, 2024
Olivia Alperstein, Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo
FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES
For Immediate Release
Press contact below
Washington, D.C. - In recent weeks, Taylor Swift has drawn scrutiny for her private jet travel habits, including speculation about her ability to attend the upcoming Super Bowl.
Private jet travel and inequality experts Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo, co-authors of recent research on private jet travel, are available for comment and interviews on Taylor Swift's jet-setting and the larger context of the full cost of private jet travel to taxpayers and the planet.
"Like many parents of pre-teen and teenage girls, I've spent over a decade learning every Taylor Swift song. She deserves all the accolades and awards for her incredible songwriting talent. But it's time to give up the private jet," said expert Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author of research on the costs of private travel. "It's time to focus our attention on the considerable harms that private jet travel causes to our planet, and the significant costs that ordinary taxpayers end up shouldering, too. Our in-depth research found that private jets emit at least 10 times more pollutants per passenger compared to commercial planes. As a role model for millions of people around the world, Taylor Swift should set a powerful example by ditching the private jet and helping to save the planet."
A 2023 study by the Institute for Policy Studies, "High Flyers 2023," carefully examined publicly available data and found that:
"Taylor Swift's potential flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas just to attend the Super Bowl is the best argument for a tax on private jet travel," said IPS researcher and report coauthor Omar Ocampo. "Our research found that such a tax could have generated over $2 billion a year. Ordinary taxpayers and our planet are paying the cost of private jet travel. It's time to reverse this harmful trend."
Read IPS's full 2023 report on the cost of private jet travel to taxpayers and the planet: https://ips-dc.org/report-high-flyers-2023/
IPS's research on private jet travel has appeared in The Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, CNN, and other outlets.
To speak with Chuck Collins or Omar Ocampo for an interview or more information, contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at (202) 704-9011 or [email protected].
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