A Push to Boost Sustainable Aviation Fuel Incentives Gets Bipartisan Support

Lawmakers from both parties and businesses spanning the airline and farming industries want sustainable aviation fuel to take off.

A bill introduced by Republican and Democratic lawmakers this week would strengthen a credit for SAF producers that was recently pruned, while also aiming to create thousands of jobs in agriculture and other areas.

“Investing in sustainable aviation fuel isn’t just good for the environment—it’s good for Kansas farmers, our communities and our economy,” said Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat representing the agriculture-heavy state.

Davids introduced the Securing America’s Fuels, or SAF, Act along with fellow Reps. Tracey Mann (R., Kan.), Mike Flood (R., Neb.), and Troy Carter (D., La.).

“Sustainable aviation fuel is a worthwhile investment for American agriculture and for American energy dominance,” said Mann, adding that the bill would give “Kansas farmers the certainty they need to plan, invest and keep supplying fuel to the country and our aviation sector.”

Sustainable aviation fuel is made from renewable, nonfossil sources such as used cooking oil, animal fats, and agricultural or forestry waste, or from feedstocks that include corn and sugar cane.

The sustainable aviation fuel industry relies on a clean fuel production tax credit known as 45Z that was recently limited under the Trump administration’s “one big, beautiful bill” but remains one of the few mostly intact clean energy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. The proposed SAF legislation would reinstate a bonus credit for SAF and extend 45Z through 2033.

SAF production could generate tens of thousands of jobs in construction, operations, agriculture and logistics, according to the lawmakers. It also could reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially, “delivering major environmental benefits while using existing aviation infrastructure,” the proponents said.

The bill is backed by industry and agricultural groups including the National Corn Growers Association, Airlines for America and the Kansas Farm Bureau.

Companies including Delta Air Lines are voicing their support. Cherie Wilson, vice president of government affairs for sustainability at Delta, said the bill “provides the critical investment certainty necessary to bring additional SAF production facilities online to meet our industry’s unprecedented demand for cost-competitive, homegrown fuels.”

United Airlines said that “extending the credit’s duration and guaranteeing its full value are pivotal policy actions that would accelerate domestic SAF production, strengthen U.S. energy and climate leadership, and reinforce America’s position as the world’s most competitive producer of cleaner, lower-carbon jet fuel.”

Global supply of sustainable aviation fuel hit one million metric tons in 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association, just 0.3% of jet fuel produced last year.

For farmers, “biomass-based diesel production supports approximately 10 percent of the value of every bushel of soybeans grown in the United States,” according to Kaleb Little, chief executive of the Kansas Soybean Association.

The American Sugar Cane League said sugar mills use bagasse, the fibrous byproduct of recovering sugar from the sugar cane plant, to power their operations during harvest season and have enough to potentially use elsewhere.

“Our farmers have been growing and delivering this renewable fuel for over a century and we are anxious to find new uses for the excess biofuel (bagasse) that we currently produce,” the group said.