To achieve this, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, aviation trade organisation Airlines for America (A4A), and aircraft manufacturer Boeing established the ‘Farm to Fly’ initiative, which aims to develop a commercially viable sustainable aviation fuel industry for the United States. The program was extended for five years in 2013 with the addition of the Transportation Department’s Federal Aviation Administration and major private partners such as the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative. The new initiative, now called Farm to Fly 2.0, works to increase the nation’s supply of alternative fuel with the end goal of producing about 3.7 billion litres of drop-in sustainable aviation fuel a year by 2018.
With the proper buy-in from the government and continued commitment by the aviation industry, sustainable fuel will make up a far higher proportion of the US aviation energy mix in the years to come.