Biden outlines a plan for cleaner jet fuel. But how clean would it be?

At first glance, it’s a big step forward in curbing climate change. In a deal announced Thursday, the Biden administration and the airline industry agreed to an ambitious goal of replacing all jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, a target meant to drive down flying’s environmental toll. As early as 2030, President Biden said, the United States will aim to produce three billion gallons of sustainable fuel — about 10% of current jet fuel use — from waste, plants and other organic matter, reducing aviation’s emissions of planet-warming gases by 20% and creating jobs. The airline industry has set sustainable fuel targets before. The IATA had pledged to replace 10% of the jet fuel it uses with sustainable fuels by 2017. That year has come and gone, and sustainable fuels are still stuck at far less than 1% of supply. Could it be different this time? It could. Momentum is building for action even in industries like aviation, which are particularly reliant on burning fossil fuels, because powering planes solely with batteries, especially for long-haul flights, is tricky. But there’s a twist: Depending on the type of alternative fuel, using billions of gallons of it could hurt, not help, the climate. Scientists’ concerns center on the complicated calculations that go into assessing the true climate-friendliness of biofuels, a major subset of sustainable fuels. Growing crops like corn and soy to be made into biofuels can significantly change how land is used, and trigger emissions increases — for example, if forests are cut down or grassland is dug up to make way for those crops. Story has more.<br/>