In spite of an ardent anti-climate posture and ongoing efforts to freeze funds for projects deemed “woke” at the Department of Energy, the Trump administration has unfrozen funds for sustainable aviation fuel in Montana. The project is relatively small in terms of funding– just $1.44 billion– but will be moving forward after what appears to be behind-the-scenes support from Republican Montana Senator Steve Daines.

While this move offers some hope for those trying to further decarbonize the aviation business, it is a tiny drop in the bucket, especially as global travel takes off and as a rightward shift in global politics is leaving climate action on the backburner.

Sustainable Aviation Fuels Have Been in Development for a Long Time

While the aviation industry has been working to green its fuels since the early 2000s due to supply challenges and environmental concerns, the technology has been in development for decades.

Traditional jet fuel comes from crude oil, and thanks to the rebound in post-pandemic travel, estimates from last September show that emissions from jet fuel put roughly 70.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) into the atmosphere in 20424, according to MIT Technology Review.

SAF technology was first developed by the US military–specifically the Navy and the Air Force. The first commercial test flight was conducted by Virgin in 2008. In 2009, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ATSM) International approved SAF fuels for commercial use. In 2011 KLM operated the first commercial flight using biofuel. Other global carriers got on board, and the US and EU introduced a number of policies and incentives to help accelerate the adoption of alternative jet fuels.

In 2021, the Biden Administration announced the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge with the goal of producing 3 billion gallons of SAF by 2030 and 35 billion gallons by 2050 to meet the growing travel demands of the globe. The status of this program is unclear given the current administration’s aggressive attempts to dismantle climate programs that Biden put into place. A group of bipartisan Senators introduced a bill to keep the biofuels program going the day after Trump signed an executive order to roll back IRA benefits and freeze funding, and a few days before Trump’s inauguration, the DOE released a progress report on the program.

SAF fuels are made of a variety of materials that range from animal fats and vegetable oils to crop waste and algae, alcohol, municipal solid waste and e-fuels. Sustainable aviation fuels can reportedly cut emissions by as much as 50 to 90 percent, but current production levels represent less than 1 percent of global jet fuel demand.

Montana’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Loan

Against this backdrop, the DOE announced last week that Montana Renewables, a subsidiary of Montana-based petrochemicals company Calumet, would use the loan to scale up production of sustainable aviation and truck fuels using seed oils and animal fats.

According to Canary Media, Montana Renewables had a $782 million loan guarantee finalized in the last days of the Biden presidency. The company was supposed to receive funds on January 28 to expand its refining capacity to produce 315 million gallons of renewable fuel per year. The company was notified by the current administration that the funds were delayed “for a tactical review to ensure alignment with the new administration’s energy strategy,” according to financial filings and reporting by Canary.

There are more than $107 billion in loan guarantees currently being held up by Trump, including funding for electric car manufacturing plants, biofuels, and more, according to Canary, and there are indications that the administration is going to do its best to claw back the money that was promised under Biden, to “realign” it with the administration's executive order. Reports indicate that the new focus will be on nuclear and natural gas.

The movement on this particular loan only took place after Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) pressed the administration to stay the course with its commitment to Montana Renewables. The Republican has, in the past, touted Biden’s Green New Deal policies as “radical” and “anti-energy.”

Confounding Factors Will Slow the Adoption of SAFs

While the unfreezing of that particular loan represents a bright spot in what has been a dim outlook on the future of climate efforts in the U.S., there are other confounding factors that will continue to slow the rollout of sustainable jet fuels. International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicates that actual SAF production in 2024 was approximately 1 million metric tons, representing about 0.3% of global jet fuel consumption.

Also, according to reporting at The Conversation, sustainable jet fuels emit about the same amount of carbon dioxide as petro-based jet fuels. Most of the benefits actually come from how the world accounts for waste and the renewable energy that is used to produce SAF. There are some conflicting formulations of how SAF emissions should be determined, but suffice it to say that they all share an assumption every ounce of SAF created will either be incinerated or degrade naturally, thus releasing the carbon into the atmosphere. If SAF is made with renewable energy and captured carbon, makers can deduct those emissions from the total impact of SAF, making it seem less impactful.

There’s also some debate as to how much feedstock is available for a global scale-up. Inputs like used cooking oil are limited, and some observers have argued that diverting soybeans and corn from food and animal feed could increase food prices, up land use emissions and cause increased deforestation. Synthetic fuels (e-fuels) show the most promise, but they are made from hydrogen and carbon dioxide and are very expensive and energy-intensive to create. Montana Renewables makes fuel from vegetable oils and fatty acids.

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