THE US biden administration has unveiled a plan to make jet travel more climate-friendly, reports the Washington Post.
The proposal calls for giving subsidies to support the development of 'sustainable aviation fuels,' capable of powering jet engines from agricultural products. Examples of such fuels include biofuels engineered out of soybeans, diesel made with animal fat and conventional types of ethanol.
Senior White House officials said the programme would make the airline industry cleaner while bringing prosperity to rural America.
But environmental groups and some scientists expressed reservations about the plan, which would award subsidies based on a scientific model that has previously been used to justify incentives for corn-based ethanol. Studies have found the gasoline additive is exacerbating climate change.
The new tax credits, created through President Biden's signature climate law, are meant to spur production of jet fuels that create no more than half the emissions of the petroleum-based product. Each gallon of such fuel qualifies for a tax credit up to US$1.75 per gallon.
'The concern is they will end up subsidizing fuels that take an enormous amount of land to produce,' said Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University.
In addition to corn-based ethanol, he said, the new subsidy could spur massive new production of biofuels made from vegetable oil, with farmland currently being used to grow food replaced with crops harvested for jet fuel production.
SeaNews Turkey
The proposal calls for giving subsidies to support the development of 'sustainable aviation fuels,' capable of powering jet engines from agricultural products. Examples of such fuels include biofuels engineered out of soybeans, diesel made with animal fat and conventional types of ethanol.
Senior White House officials said the programme would make the airline industry cleaner while bringing prosperity to rural America.
But environmental groups and some scientists expressed reservations about the plan, which would award subsidies based on a scientific model that has previously been used to justify incentives for corn-based ethanol. Studies have found the gasoline additive is exacerbating climate change.
The new tax credits, created through President Biden's signature climate law, are meant to spur production of jet fuels that create no more than half the emissions of the petroleum-based product. Each gallon of such fuel qualifies for a tax credit up to US$1.75 per gallon.
'The concern is they will end up subsidizing fuels that take an enormous amount of land to produce,' said Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University.
In addition to corn-based ethanol, he said, the new subsidy could spur massive new production of biofuels made from vegetable oil, with farmland currently being used to grow food replaced with crops harvested for jet fuel production.
SeaNews Turkey
