US sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects will move forward despite the US administration pushing back against earlier legislation that supports renewables, the head of United Airlines said today.
SAF has bipartisan support in Congress and at the state level and is likely to be protected, United chief executive Scott Kirby said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas.
Electrification is not practical in large scale aviation and hydrogen has a different set of problems, leaving SAF as the better option, Kirby said.
The US has provided strong incentives to develop SAF under laws passed during the administration of former-president Joe Biden and will likely produce enough to export to Europe to help that continent meet aggressive targets.
US president Donald Trump issued an executive order upon taking office which paused all disbursements of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022 and a complementary infrastructure law passed in 2021. The order called for ending the "Green New Deal", echoing language he used on the campaign trail when criticizing the IRA. Trump said the funding should be held back until federal agencies "review their processes, policies and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts or any other financial disbursements" to ensure they fit with policy objectives.
United announced in December that it agreed to buy SAF from Phillips 66's Rodeo facility in northern California as soon as the product came online.
The airline inked a similar deal with Neste last year for SAF as it continues to take advantage of the Illinois SAF buyers' tax credit in supplying its major hub at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Other US independent refiners have recently announced that SAF projects are advancing.
Specialty refiner Calumet said last month that a project to expand SAF production in Montana is moving forward after it received an initial $782mn loan from the US Department of Energy (DOE).
The funding is the first portion of a $1.44bn loan from the DOE that will allow Calumet subsidiary Montana Renewables to expand operations at its Great Falls, Montana, biofuel plant.
The loan was paused temporarily earlier this year as the Trump administration conducted a review to confirm "alignment with White House priorities."
Another US independent refiner, Par Pacific, said it is seeing strong interest in its planned renewable fuels facility at its 94,000 b/d Kapolei, Hawaii, refinery.
The $90mn project, which will produce SAF and other products, is on schedule to start up in the second-half of 2025, Par Pacific said.
Meanwhile, US independent refiner Valero said recently that its project to produce up to 15,000 b/d of SAF at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, is fully operational.
The project allows the plant, jointly owned with Diamond Green Diesel (DGD), to upgrade up to 50pc of its 31,000 b/d renewable diesel refining capacity to SAF.
