WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, CEO Emily Skor highlighted the biofuel industry’s perspective on the future of sustainability and clean energy during two high-profile forums in Washington D.C.
On November 14, Skor joined lawmakers and industry leaders, including Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns, at Tech for Climate Action’s U.S. Clean Energy Transition Conference, where she discussed the role biofuels play in our nation’s climate strategy, particularly when it comes to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
“We’re working very hard to make sure that biofuels play the important role that they should play in our national quest to get to a net-zero economy in 2050,” said Skor. “Last year, the U.S. produced 16 million gallons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Many of you are hopefully familiar – the Biden administration has the SAF Grand Challenge, which commits the U.S. to producing three billion gallons by 2030. So yes, you did the arithmetic correctly. We’ve got to go from 16 million to three billion in seven short years, so that of course requires some pretty exponential growth.”
New markets for SAF and carbon reduction were also a hot topic at POLITICO’s energy forum titled “The Sustainable Future: Driving Toward Clean Fuel,” where she was joined by other clean energy advocates from Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) and American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). The panel, sponsored by Consumer Reports, also featured Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Department of Energy Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation & Fuels Michael Berube.
During the event, Skor emphasized the importance of certainty in the administration’s implementation of the tax code, especially when it comes to achieving U.S. goals for decarbonizing aviation. Since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Growth Energy has worked alongside airlines and other stakeholders to push the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to adopt the best available science – Argonne National Lab’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) Model – for calculating tax incentives on SAF and other fuels.
“Sustainable Aviation Fuel – this is a whole new frontier for us, as a country and really as a world,” she said. “The tax credits only take us through 2027, so the investments required – it’s hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. And so, if you’re going to do that, the tax credit helps a little bit, but you’ve got to have that business certainty.”
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