Growth Energy CEO Takes Center Stage on SAF and Clean Energy

(Growth Energy/Ethanol Producer Magazine) 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 Nov. 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 have 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 the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). The panel, sponsored by Consumer Reports, also featured Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) 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 provides 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 hundreds of millions of dollars in investment will be required. So, if you’re going to do that, the tax credit helps a bit, but you’ve got to have that business certainty.” READ MORE

Excerpt from New York Times: Not all new biofuel demand would have to be met with corn. Algae, manure and cooking oil (which some airlines already use in small amounts) also could be sources for jet fuel.

But experts say the government’s ambitious targets — 35 billion gallons a year of sustainable aviation fuel from all sources by midcentury — require what are essentially dedicated energy crops, particularly corn. To qualify as sustainable aviation fuel under Biden’s tax-credit program, the fuel would have to be produced in a climate-friendly manner, for instance using renewable energy for harvesting, manufacture or transport.

Industry representatives also argue that fears of aquifer damage to meet new demand are overblown because corn has become increasingly water-efficient with new irrigation methods and new types of seeds and fertilizer. These improvements are also increasing yields, they say, reducing the need to convert more cropland to corn.

“There’s only so much land, and we’re already using it now,” said John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union. “The West has been settled. That’s the rumor.”

Nebraska has one important advantage. Much of the state sits atop a particularly flush part of the Ogallala Aquifer that can recharge relatively quickly. Some researchers also commend Nebraska’s 23 Natural Resources Districts, made up of local regulators, who put into place stricter rules when aquifer levels drop. Lately, though, that has been happening more frequently as the state endured conditions so dry that wildfires broke out. READ MORE

Excerpt from Growth Energy: On Nov. 30, 2023, the New York Times ran an article about the role bioethanol made from corn will play in building a market for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor submitted the following letter to the editor in response:

A Nov. 30 article on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) suggested that crop-based inputs, like ethanol, could use up too much water for irrigation. The science shows otherwise.

The water required to produce ethanol fell almost 50 percent since the early 2000s. Today, production only requires 2.7 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol – compared to 13 gallons of water to produce one gallon of gasoline. And, unlike in oil production, most of that water is returned to the atmosphere as steam.

Indeed, the data shows that U.S. ethanol is an increasingly sustainable fuel on a lifecycle emissions basis. The most recent Department of Energy study, published by Argonne National Laboratory in 2021, found that corn ethanol has 44–52 percent lower emissions than gasoline. Argonne’s research also shows that, with climate-smart farming practices, ethanol-to-jet SAF can be 153 percent less carbon intensive than petroleum-based jet fuel.

Simply put, plant-based biofuels are the only sources of clean, renewable energy available in large enough volumes to decarbonize the skies. That’s an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. READ MORE