SAF Reportedly Has The Potential To Reduce Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions As Much As 80%.
A coalition of 42 business aviation leaders, major U.S. airlines and other industry associations is urging the White House to clear regulatory roadblocks hindering the scale-up of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production – and the carbon emissions reductions that SAF can bring the aviation sector. SAF has the potential to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions as much as 80%.
The Biden Administration, in support of its climate goals, last September announced a SAF Grand Challenge to get SAF production to 3 billion gallons annually by 2030.
In a letter to President Biden’s national climate advisor, Gina McCarthy, the associations representing aerospace companies, airlines, airports, biotechnology, business aviation and renewable fuels producers said “creating a commercial supply of SAF is of critical importance to both the aviation sector and our nation’s environment. We believe the SAF Grand Challenge can be the foundation for a viable and productive domestic SAF industry, creating tens of thousands of jobs and enabling the United States to retain its position as the world leader in this emerging market.
“However, it is imperative that the Biden administration act now to solidify a complementary regulatory framework to foster cleaner, more sustainable, and more secure domestic energy sources for aviation.”
The coalition also thanked the administration for its support of two legislative initiatives pending in Congress: a SAF blender’s tax credit and a separate SAF grant program. Both have passed the U.S. House of Representatives and are pending in the U.S. Senate. They would enable the federal government and the aviation industry to make significant strides in emissions reduction, while supporting U.S. job growth and energy security.
Under the Grand Challenge, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pledged to take “steps designed to expedite the regulatory approval process to support newly developed fuels and feedstocks that may be viable for inclusion as able to general Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) under renewable fuel in the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.”
In the letter, the stakeholders said the EPA should finalize the “biointermediate” provisions contained in the RFS annual rule with simple fixes that would dramatically improve the ability to achieve the Biden administration’s 3 billion gallon SAF goal. The requested fixes include:
- Allowing SAF feedstock to be processed at more than two facilities
- Allowing biointermediate feedstock to be sold to more than one refinery
- Updating the definition of “biocrude”
- Allowing for commingling of biointermediates
- Authorizing use of pipeline biogas for SAF
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