Proposal would subsidize farmers to grow crops to create aviation fuel
The Farm To Fly Act is the most basic reason STNI has never endorsed so-called sustainable aviation fuels.
In theory, aviation fuels created exclusively from scrap biomass may pollute less and might create fewer greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. However, the amount of such available material will never be more than a tiny fraction of what any airline needs.
The only way to obtain the quantities of biomass necessary to create aviation fuels at scale is to do exactly what this bill does–use commercially farmed materials, subsidized by taxpayers. The exact opposite of ‘sustainable’.
Growing corn to then be processed into fuel is a terrible idea. It’s actually worse for the environment than taking fossil fuels out of the ground. In addition to the fact that one is burning fossil fuels, there are also all the added environmental costs of growing those crops and paying farmers to do it.
It is astounding to us that we have not learned this lesson because SAF is the aviation equivalent of Ethanol–a lose, lose created to subsidize Big Ag and enable automakers to slow-walk developing real alternatives to internal combustion engines.
This is the commercial aviation version of Ethanol. No more. No less.
Farm To Fly is a lie and a crime against the planet, public health, and taxpayers. We urge all lawmakers and airport operators like the Port of Seattle to speak up forcefully against it.
