California announced on Wednesday it has reached an agreement with about a dozen major national airlines on the use of sustainable aviation fuel to cut greenhouse gasses from conventional jet fuel.
The coalition of passenger and cargo airlines agreed with the California Air Resources Board to increase the availability of sustainable aviation fuel for use within California to 200 million gallons a year by 2035.
That amount will be able to support about 40% of intrastate travel, according to the state, and represents a more than tenfold increase from current levels.
“California and the aviation industry are joining forces to tackle emissions head-on," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "We’ve put the tools in place to incentivize cleaner fuels and spur innovation, creating opportunities like this to radically change how Californians can travel cleaner.
This is a major step forward in our work to cut pollution, protect our communities, and build a future of cleaner air and innovative climate solutions.”
The sustainable fuel is a low-carbon alternative to petroleum-based jet fuel and is made from renewable biomass and/or waste. The agreement supports a commitment by the major U.S. airlines to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, which will require completely transitioning from conventional jet fuel to sustainable alternatives.
The voluntary and non-binding agreement is with the Airlines for America, an industry trade organization that represents the major U.S. carriers.
Per the agreement, the state's air resources board and the airline group are to work together to identify, evaluate, and prioritize new policies and actions, including incentives for investment and timely permitting to help accelerate the availability and use of sustainable aviation fuels for intrastate flights in California.
They will also create a sustainable aviation fuel working group comprised of government and industry representatives that is to meet annually to report progress and address barriers to meeting these goals.
“[Sustainable aviation fuel] is the best-known lever we have to decarbonize aviation, and with around 90% of Delta’s carbon emissions coming from jet fuel, we need as much SAF as we can get," said Amelia DeLuca, chief sustainability officer at Delta Air Lines.
"That’s why we’re proud to have current offtake agreements in place to support our use of SAF in California, and why we will continue to work with value chain players and government partners like CARB to accelerate the development of SAF for the future.”
Other airlines that are part of the agreement are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air Worldwide, FedEx, Hawaiian Airlines, jetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS and associate member Air Canada.
The agreement with California dovetails with the Biden administration's so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge that calls for as much as 3 billion gallon of the low-carbon alternative to be available domestically by 2030 and to make the aviation sector achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
