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Increasing production of SAF in the U.S. will fall to the Republican-controlled Congress and the second Trump administration.
Business aviation has leapt ahead of airlines in adopting sustainable aviation fuel, but a change in U.S. presidents and renewed Republican control of Congress has injected uncertainty into the wider industry’s progress toward the goal of net-zero carbon emissions.
As of late November, sustainability consulting company 4AIR listed 42 airports serving business aviation in the U.S. and 39 in European countries as well as Dubai, and Singapore that have a physical supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or have announced they will soon offer the sustainably sourced jet fuel.
- Bizav embraces sustainable aviation fuel
- More fixed-base operators are supplying blended SAF
- Future production incentives are in doubt
Signature Aviation, the world’s largest network of fixed-base operators (FBO), said it would offer blended SAF—35% “neat” SAF and 65% conventional jet fuel—at six new locations in the U.S., including some of business aviation’s busiest airports, in 2025. The expansion extends Signature’s SAF availability to 23 locations.
SAF acceptance by operators is on the rise, as is production of the fuel, the National Business Aviation Association says. In the three years since the Biden administration announced its ambitious SAF Grand Challenge, annual domestic production and imports of SAF have increased tenfold to 52 million gal. from 5 million gal. through the first half of 2024, the association notes, citing data from the U.S. Energy Department.
But ongoing progress toward the Grand Challenge goal, which calls for the U.S. to ramp up domestic SAF production to 3 billion gal. a year by 2030, now falls to President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress. Republicans last controlled the House and Senate from January 2017 to January 2019, during Trump’s first administration.
Trump, who has expressed doubts about the science of climate change, has vowed to roll back President Joe Biden’s climate policies and repeal the landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allotted $369 billion in tax incentives, grants and subsidies for clean-energy projects.
Derided by Trump as the “Green New Scam,” the IRA contained a Blenders Tax Credit that business aviation had long advocated to incentivize SAF production, but it expires in January. After that, a new Clean Fuel Production Credit, known as the 45Z credit, allows an income tax credit for the domestic production of lower-emission SAF and non-SAF transportation fuel through 2027.
“Any reduction in Clean Fuel Production Credit under a Trump administration could hurt SAF’s trajectory just as the market is beginning to gain traction,” commented online publication SAF Investor. “Trump’s previous stance on biofuel blending requirements—and his willingness to reduce Renewable Fuel Standard compliance costs for refineries—could signal further cuts to biofuel blending incentives, impacting feedstock demand and creating volatility in the SAF market.”
The Energy Department’s GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) model, a life-cycle analysis framework used to evaluate the energy and environmental performance of technologies, will guide the 45Z credit calculation. Analysts expect Trump’s new cabinet appointments to influence that model, potentially shifting incentives toward crop-based feedstocks, according to SAF Investor.
At the same time, Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from China and other countries could make imported SAF feedstocks more expensive, leveling the playing field with U.S. crop-based feedstocks. Used cooking oil (UCO) imports now account for about 60% of the UCO applied in U.S. renewable fuel production, says consultancy ADI Analytics, and most of these imports come from China.
Trump plans to nominate Chris Wright, CEO of oilfield services and hydraulic fracturing company Liberty Energy, to serve as energy secretary, and Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as interior secretary. Both are proponents of oil and gas drilling.
Legislation’s Largesse
While the IRA received no Republican votes in either chamber of Congress, nearly 60% of the clean energy projects announced in the first two years of the legislation, representing 85% of the investments, were based in Republican-held congressional districts, the nonpartisan group E2 reported in August. That grounding has given rise to optimism that any rollback of SAF and renewable fuel incentives will be politically challenging.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) visited the SAF Coalition in late November and “discussed the need for greater legislative efforts to support the production and deployment of SAF” in the 119th Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, the coalition says. The departing 118th Congress saw the launch of bipartisan Sustainable Aviation Caucuses in both the Senate—led by Moran and other senators—and the House. Reps. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) and Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), both reelected in 2024, co-chaired the House group.
The SAF Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group founded in Washington in April, lists Amazon, Boeing, several major airlines, airports, renewable fuel developers and business aviation companies NetJets and VeriJet among its 56 members. The group sees a silver lining for SAF in a Republican-controlled capital.
“The new administration and congressional landscape present huge opportunities to advance U.S. leadership and economic competitiveness,” SAF Coalition Executive Director Alison Graab says.
“By supporting SAF, we are not only creating a robust domestic market, but a U.S. market that can support exports, American farmers and rural communities for years to come,” Graab adds. “We’re encouraged by the bipartisan recognition of SAF’s potential and believe that extended and enhanced federal policies can strengthen America’s leadership on SAF.”
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