Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to discuss the Biden Administration’s priorities for infrastructure legislation. Buttigieg was asked about the DOT’s role in decarbonizing aviation, and responded:

“I agree with you that SAF is the most significant near-term means available to us. It’s not like surface transportation where electrification is already in line for widespread adoption, and I think the key word is the word that you used, which is ‘scale.’ We know that in order for this to truly be economical for carriers and ultimately for passengers, we would have to be at a more advanced scale than we are right now.I’m trying to assess how much of that can be achieved through further developments in the research space versus what we can do in terms of market-making investments that might be supportive of getting closer to that critical mass that would allow SAFs to really mature as a market and then eventually, we would hope, be in a position where they could be adopted without any policy thumb on the scale,but we know that’s a long way off. So, we’re open about different approaches to get it done and agree with you that there’s no time like the present for America to be leading in that regard.”

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The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has been the voice of aviation business for more than 80 years. Representing nearly 3,700 aviation businesses, NATA’s member companies provide a broad range of services to general aviation, the airlines and the military and NATA serves as the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.