(Originally published by The Hill on August 22, 2023)

On a breezy day in April, Violet Wulf-Saena, founder and executive director of the non-profit Climate Resilient Communities, stood at Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto, a popular recreation spot on the shore of San Francisco Bay. Violet was there as part of the launch of Youth Climate Collective to educate local youth about environmental justice, but her voice kept getting drowned out by the drone of piston-engine planes operating out of nearby Palo Alto Airport. This was no surprise. Palo Alto Airport is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the Bay Area — and in the country — averaging over 155,000 takeoffs and landings per year. That’s 427 flight operations every day.

(Continue reading the opinion essay on The Hill’s page here)