Sustainable Aviation Fuel Incentives Passed

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Tucked deep in the millions of words that make up the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 are incentives for the production of sustainable aviation fuel. The much-vaunted economic and climate action bill was passed by the Senate on Sunday and the $1.25-$1.75 in credits (depending on how green they are in terms of inputs and process) should make it more attractive for producers to get the fuel to market. Whether the credits will be reflected at the pumps isn’t clear, but the National Air Transport Association applauded passage of legislation.

NATA CEO Tim Obitts said the tax credits are “a crucial first step toward meeting the Biden Administration’s SAF Grand Challenge goal of three billion gallons of domestically produced SAF by 2030.” He said the next step is to tackle the regulatory and bureaucratic roadblocks impeding the industry. “We encourage Congress to work just as diligently to equip federal agencies, including EPA, with the necessary tools to support SAF production in line with industry demand,” Obitts said.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. You can always predict the true impact of a bill from a Democrat congress like this one: It will be the exact opposite of the name of the bill. The Inflation Reduction Act will only deepen the current recession, explode inflation further, add to our $31T national debt and cause a Depression that will equal or exceed the disaster in the 1930s created by another Democrat president, FDR. Remember the “Affordable Care Act” (ACA, aka Obamacare)? It was supposed to reduce our annual medical insurance premiums by $2500. After all, the great Barack Hussein Obama promised us, didn’t he? My Blue Cross premium more than tripled. (Thank God I then found Medi-Share). Nobody except Big Ag wants SAF, which in reality is bio-diesel, but the greenies demonized diesel to help their war against fossil fuels, so they had to invent another word. Just like ethanol in our gasoline (that nobody but Big Ag wants), SAF will gobble up millions of acres of land now used to make food, increasing the cost of food and causing more starvation. It will require more fertilizer, which ironically depends greatly on natural gas for its production. The ongoing feeding frenzy among crony businesses pushing claptrap, uneconomical ideas like SAF, battery or hydrogen airplanes, etc will come to an abrupt end after the November elections, but the long-term damage to our economy and society will have been done. Elections have consequences, especially when they are stolen.

    • A recession is when unemployment is on the rises and has nothing to do with SAF fuel. Out come of our elections again not relevant to SAF. These programs transcend decades of administrations. Aviation, especially GA is the target of environmental action. Anything we can do to deflect attention away from the community by casting a positive light on the industry will keep our local airports open and aircraft in the air. We must stop looking backwards as pilots and find ways to protect our freedom to fly, that includes looking to the future of alternative AV fuels. Our taxes pay for state and federal grants that keep airports maintained. Our local airport is supported by Federal and State grants, it’s owned by the city and leased to pilots and FBO. It’s not that easy to separate subsidized funding.

    • Excellent comment, Kent. A bit depressing, though. Thanks for mentioning Medi-Share. Looking into it. Also, cash-only doctors.

      • Yes, the Direct Primary Care network functions between doctor and customer.

        AtlasMD in Wichita KS charges a monthly fee for all services provided by its doctors on site. The fee is somewhat higher for babies and elders.
        It has arrangements with laboratory services, pharmacies, and hospitals at reduced prices for its customers.
        Claims to spend much more time per customer than doctors who deal with insurers.

        • Medi-Share appears to be co-operative, akin to insurance but within the organization by and for Christians who accept the Holy Trinity.
          Connected to Medicare for persons 65 and older, in some way. (Medicare has been constipated, objecting to paying a doctor directly for services not covered by it.)

          (Atlas MD expects Medicare to cover laboratory and imaging, medicines, and hospitalization but NOT services of its doctors.)

          The term ‘concierge medicine’ may be used for DPC but is vague, one use is for an annual fee that covers extra examinations and advising not covered by insurance, to enhance your health.

    • Actually, “and cause a Depression that will equal or exceed the disaster in the 1930s created by another Democrat president, FDR”, is not quite correct. The “Great Depression” began in the fall of 1929. FDR did not begin as president until January 1933, and slowly helped, along with many others, to bring us OUT of the depression thru his first and second terms in office.

    • Hmmm remember the PATRIOT act. Basically gave the government cadre Blanche to spy on its citizens with no real cause. This partisan trick is used by both sides. C’mon!!

  2. Sustainable? We already have low cost plentiful fuel through at least the next century.
    This reminds me of the “ozone crisis” where cheap and effective refrigerants were tossed in order to retrofit and sell much more expensive and less effective alternatives to “save the planet”.
    I’m beginning to suspect that the real end game in all of this is to just keep make changes in order to “sustain” business, engineering, and political influence.

    • The attack on proven refrigerants was based on bad science: there is often thinning of ozone layer over the poles because air there is cold so less ozone created by sunlight, much supply there comes from wind blowing it from tropical areas.

      • SAF is a fuel made from various feedstocks, including soybeans. Another potential source is fast-growing plants like algae. More broadly, any “renewable” source for SAF that requires fresh water is a threat to world food supplies.

  3. Someone should tell Biden and congress that the Chinese have renounced their carbon reduction commitments and abandoned the rest of the world’s efforts to reduce climate affecting materials into the atmosphere. All of this sustainable fuels nonsense is just that and even more useless now. Big ag is certainly behind anything “sustainable” if it means more subsidies, higher crop values, and more, more, more. If you want to see what a scam farming is just take a look at the tax rules for farmers.

    • objection! Regular farmers do not want the anti-fossil-fuels push, as it greatly increases their cost and greatly reduces their income. Look at Sri Lanka (fka Ceylon) whose regime whimsically reduced amount of fertilizer farmers could use, that slashed food growing. On top of economy damaged by terrorism thus tourists stayed away, and great reduction in exports of tea led to rioting.

      The regime in Communist China has the same root beliefs as eco-activists here: denial of the effectiveness of the human mind for life. An apocalypt ic mentality.

  4. Right out of the chute Kent M. nailed the problems GA faces. If “it ain’t broke stop trying to fix it.”

    The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 as written will surely cause more problems as we watch government entities try to make silk out of the proverbial sow’s ear.

    Hopefully the November election will slow things down to a near stop for two years.

  5. “vaunted”
    adjective: Highly or widely praised or boasted about.
    __________________________________________

    HAH!!

    Everybody knows it’s just another self-destructive socialist spending wish list.
    It will like trying to put out the inflationary fire by pouring gasoline on it.

    It will serve no useful purpose.

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