Today, Clean Fuels Alliance America welcomed guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the new §40B Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Credit established by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The guidance enables companies currently producing SAF under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to access the base value of the tax incentive. However, it defers allowing producers to use the Argonne National Laboratory’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model to calculate additional credit. The U.S. Department of Energy is expected next year to issue a modified GREET model for use in association with the credit.
“We appreciate President Biden recognizing that American farmers and clean fuel producers will be providing essentially all of the sustainable aviation fuel available over the next 20 years to meet the administration’s Grand Challenge,” said Kurt Kovarik, Vice President of Federal Affairs for Clean Fuels. “Enabling U.S. taxpayers to access a lifecycle model developed by U.S. national labs is clearly the best way to provide assurance to fuel producers and meet the demand for low-carbon fuels from airlines and passengers.” Kovarik continued, “We look forward to continuing our productive working relationship with Argonne National Labs, providing real-world data on fuel production and feedstocks, and ensuring the GREET model remains up to date. We will be watching closely for any updates to the model to ensure they accurately reflect the carbon reductions that clean fuels are already achieving.”
