The Hanscom Field Advisory Commission met last night and welcomed a new community engagement representative from the FAA, Lindsey White. This is a welcome improvement to our meetings because so many issues surrounding Hanscom Field are affected by federal policy.
I presented an overview of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) which is the cornerstone of the federal plan to make aviation climate friendly. 65% of the planned reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 is intended to result from increasing use of SAF. Most of my material is based on a GAO report < https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105300.pdf <https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105300.pdf>>. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is alternative jet fuel that is made from renewable and waste feedstocks and meets sustainability criteria to achieve a net greenhouse gas emissions reduction on a lifecycle basis compared to conventional jet fuel. It can be used as a drop-in replacement for jet fuel, meaning that existing fueling infrastructure and aircraft can use the fuel with no modifications. The US has spent over $34.5 billion to develop SAF technology. However, SAF can cost from 2 to 8 times the price of conventional jet fuel so very little of it is purchased. Industry groups and the US government claim that hydrogen powered aircraft are decades in the future. However, "At Airbus, we believe that hydrogen is one of the most promising decarbonization technologies for aviation. This is why we consider hydrogen to be an important technology pathway to achieve our ambition of bringing low-carbon commercial aircraft to market by 2035.” <https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/low-carbon-aviation/hydrogen <https://www.airbus.com/en/innovation/low-carbon-aviation/hydrogen>> I cannot explain the difference between the US view that hydrogen flight is decades in the future while the largest European aircraft manufacturer claims it will produce such aircraft in a dozen years. The GAO report find insufficient metrics in the US SAF plan to demonstrate progress. I find it unsettling that the US has 30 year plan to make aviation climate friendly, the GAO cannot measure if progress is being made toward this goal, and the plan requires no other climate actions by the airlines or aviation industry, despite repeated warnings from the United Nations that we have five years or less to address the climate crisis. Protecting the planet is the first priority, in my view. -Christopher Eliot Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, Chair
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