ATA welcomes government’s commitment to jet biofuels production

The US government yesterday outlined its energy security strategy, pledging to fund more production of biofuels for fighter jets, trucks and commercial airliners.

The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the trade organisation representing airlines in the US, says it ‘applauded’ the directive, of which the Department of Energy, the navy and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would all get involved.

‘We applaud President Obama’s leadership in furthering America’s energy security by directing accelerated production of commercially viable biofuels for use in aircraft,’ says ATA President and CEO Nicholas Calio. ‘ATA and our members remain firm supporters of a comprehensive national energy policy that increases US energy security, is climate-friendly, and results in more predictable and stable energy supply and costs.’

The ATA says the government’s commitment will help it to continue to work in furthering advanced biofuels development and deployment and its work with the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, a coalition that ATA co-leads with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Strategic Alliance for Alternative Fuels initiative with the US military, and its Farm-to-Fly program with USDA and Boeing.

The US government says in a statement that although corn ethanol is already being used to lower the country’s oil dependence, it realises it needs to increase its commitment towards commercialising producing cellulosic and advanced biofuels technologies.

It says: ‘The Administration has set a goal of breaking ground on at least four commercial-scale cellulosic or advanced bio-refineries over the next two years. And as we do all of these things, we will look for ways to reform our biofuels incentives to make sure they meet today's biofuels challenges and save taxpayers money.’