No Break From Eco-Minded: Taylor Swift’s Rep Fails to Soothe Private Jet CO2 Scandal

After pop sensation Taylor Swift came under fire for being a celebrity with one of the worst jet carbon emissions, the singer's representative rushed to fix the climate-PR disaster… only to make things worse.

While the pop and country singer-songwriter has yet to speak on the issue, her rep dismissed the report published earlier by Yard analytics agency as incorrect because Swift has allegedly rented out her jet to other people.

"Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect," the representative told BuzzFeed News.

If that's true, a significant (albeit unspecified) part of the 170 flights, which Yard counted, conducted by Swift's jet in 2022 were indeed not the singer's doing. However, netizens who had already been criticizing the musician online over the issue were not moved by the representative's explanations, which they largely dismissed as a "dumb excuse."

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They noted that Swift not taking all of the 170 flights herself does not negate the fact that her jet was used that many times, allegedly producing a total of 8,000 tons of carbon emissions.

"I don't care who’s on the plane, it shouldn't be making all those flights and producing all those emissions. If you own it, you're responsible for it. They should all be flying commercial (and flying less)," one netizen stated in the comments section under the article with the response from Swift's rep.

Other netizens suggested that even from a PR standpoint, the representative's response could have been better, especially at a time when the issue of climate change has been getting so much public attention. One of them suggested that the singer's communications manager could have presented a draft plan of how Swift is going to use her private jet less.

"So far I’ve heard a lot of excuses from these celebrities... has anyone mentioned they are going to make some changes? I’m pretty sure the proper response would be something like […] 'I am going to stop allowing my jet to be flown unless absolutely necessary. Next year my goal is to be one of the celebrities with the lowest emissions'," another netizen chipped in.

According to Yard's calculations, based on the available data on Swift jet's usage in 2022, her plane produced around 1,180 times more CO2 than an average American generates per year. The musician's plane also surpassed the emissions of other celebrities such as Floyd Mayweather, Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z, who joined Swift at the top of the list of "polluters."