California Announces Deal with Major Airlines to Boost Sustainable Aviation Fuel Consumption

The California Air Resources Board on Oct. 30 signed a deal with Airlines for America (A4A) to significantly increase the use of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, for Californian flights. The historic agreement between the two organizations will work towards California’s goal to ramp up the supply of SAF to 200 million gallons by 2035, 10 times the current amount.

The partnership will create a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Working Group, which will convene annually to discuss the initiative’s progress and address hurdles toward adopting SAF in the commercial aviation sector. The board will also create a website to educate the public about the use of SAF and traditional jet fuel in California, along with information about state and government sustainable aviation initiatives.

A4A is an aviation trade organization representing several major passenger and cargo airlines, such as Delta Airlines, FedEx, and American Airlines. The airline industry contributes heavily toward transport-related carbon emissions in the U.S., as much as 12 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Department. This partnership with major airlines would enable a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and improve the state’s air quality.

Sustainable aviation fuel uses renewable feedstocks such as agricultural waste, algae, and oil seeds to produce low-carbon jet fuel. As other decarbonization solutions in the aviation sector are still nascent, SAF is the most viable way to reduce carbon emissions from aviation.

The collaboration also supports the climate goals of the Biden administration’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge. The challenge sets a nationwide goal to increase domestic annual SAF production to 3 billion gallons by 2030 and 35 billion gallons by 2050, which would fulfill 100 percent of domestic demand in 2050.

Recently, the department took major steps to speed up domestic SAF production. In October, the department offered conditional loans worth almost $3 billion to two companies to produce SAF.