Press Release
7.10.24

•  New brief and factsheet highlight urgent need for investment in the SAF supply chain
•  C2ES hosting fly-in with companies critical to the SAF supply chain

The airline sector is responsible for nearly two percent of global carbon emissions, which primarily come from jet fuel. Finding lower-carbon alternatives is essential to meaningful emissions reductions. Today, C2ES released a new brief, Scaling Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Recommendations to Federal Policymakers from Washington State, that include policy suggestions from a roundtable C2ES hosted in Seattle in April 2024.

C2ES staff and stakeholders from across the SAF supply chain are on Capitol Hill today to speak with their legislators and share their unique insights on what is needed to set the SAF industry up for continued success.

Washington has a history of innovation in the SAF sector. In 2012, to build on its leadership in aviation and potential as a SAF leader, the state began convening stakeholders in the aviation sector to provide recommendations to the legislature to develop a sustainable aviation fuel industry. Now, Washington may have the most advanced state-level policy environment in support of a sustainable aviation fuel industry in the nation—it is currently the only state where SAF is credited under both the tax code and as an opt-in fuel under the state’s Clean Fuels Program.

To support and learn from Washington’s pioneering work on SAF, C2ES brought together nearly 40 participants for a roundtable discussion in April 2024.

The conversation was designed to learn from local stakeholder experiences and develop specific, actionable federal policy recommendations to supplement state-level support for SAF through a series of facilitated small group discussions. These discussions produced recommendations to address four areas of potential high impact: unlocking private investment in SAF production, supporting the buildout of SAF infrastructure, accelerating SAF utilization, and encouraging equitable workforce development in the SAF industry.

“Washington has demonstrated tremendous leadership in helping the SAF industry get to where it is today. To fully realize the economic and environmental potential of this crucial industry, we need federal policies to scale and deploy SAF nationally.,” said Brad Townsend, VP of Policy and Outreach at C2ES. 

Several key federal policy solutions emerged during the focused policy discussions throughout the roundtable and subsequent conversations with participants, including:

• The extension of incentives for SAF production and blending to help catalyze investment in new SAF facilities and boost supply

• More access to funding and legal eligibility for airports to make investments in SAF related infrastructure

• Ensuring that dedicated, annual infrastructure funding grows alongside the scale of opportunity for key components across the SAF supply chain.

• Requiring applicants for federal SAF-related funding to consider how their project will support equitable workforce development.

Click here to read the full brief and here to read the fact sheet.