Flying into the Future: Sustainable Aviation Fuel and the Policies Impacting its Development

As the world works to limit greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the impacts of climate change across all sectors, air travel presents a particularly difficult challenge. Aviation contributes approximately 2.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but unlike other portions of the transportation sector, it is unlikely that electrification will meaningfully reduce emissions from air travel. To meet the demands of low-carbon flight, policymakers and the industry are turning to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF is chemically very similar to conventional jet fuel, allowing it to be mixed with fossil-derived jet fuel and used in existing aircraft. But it is derived from biomass and/or using low-emissions energy sources, thus reducing its life-cycle carbon emissions by between 50 and 94% compared to conventional jet fuel. But because SAF is currently about 2.5 times as expensive as jet fuel derived from fossil fuels, policy plays an important role in determining its likelihood of adoption.
Mike Helbing joined Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy in 2022, and he is now serving as Executive Director. He is involved in many of CELP’s research and educational activities, including projects related to sustainable aviation fuel, solar policy, hydrogen development, renewable natural gas, and critical minerals, among others. Prior to joining CELP, Mike worked in positions that integrated law with science and policy. Most recently, he worked as an attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he was Associate Chief Counsel for Litigation and Senior Enforcement Advisor. He has also served as a Staff Attorney for Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), where he advised on legal and policy matters related to energy and the environment. In that role, he served on Governor Wolf’s Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force in 2015. Mike has earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Penn State and a law degree from Yale Law School.