MEMO: STATE OF THE ACAF COALITION - END OF YEAR REFLECTION
MEMO: State of the ACaf Coalition - End of year reflection
To: Interested Parties
From: Americans for Clean Aviation Fuels
Re: State of the ACAF Coalition - End of Year Reflection
Date: December 2024
MEMO: State of the ACAF Coalition - End of Year Reflection
Overview of 2024:
Americans for Clean Aviation Fuels launched just over one year ago as the first national coalition to bring together leaders across the complete value chain to highlight the economic benefits of building a robust U.S. market for clean aviation fuels. The coalition has focused on strategically growing support for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) policy incentives by compiling national data and distributing our key messaging to drive grasstops and grassroots support through our strategic 360-degree public affairs campaign. This data has confirmed scaling up a domestic SAF market will increase economic growth in America’s heartland and bolster farm revenues. Nationally, we expect the creation of over 400,000 jobs and nearly $80 billion added to our national GDP by 2035. Across the memo, we will highlight many of our successful initiatives that helped build support for clean aviation fuels nationwide.
Growing Membership:
Since the coalition's announcement, ACAF has welcomed seven new members who have come to the table and are committed to finding a path forward for sustainable aviation fuel. The 15 founding members are dynamic industry leaders from aviation, manufacturing, defense, domestic agriculture and agri-buisness, as well as biofuel producers and traditional oil and gas. We remain committed to being a consensus-driven coalition able to initiate and guide substantive, strategic discussions around policy while balancing each member's individual priorities.
Positioning Proven Thought Leaders:
ACAF members have traveled throughout the country, from New York to Kansas to Texas, to raise awareness of the growing clean aviation fuels industry. Our members have served as keynote speakers, panelists and sponsors of some of the most well-known energy, agriculture and sustainability conferences including Climate Week, CERAWeek, the National Conservative Energy Summit and the Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit.
As a coalition, we’ve worked to further support for SAF policy incentives through strategic engagement with agriculture and transportation leaders:
- Guest speaker at a Congressional Sustainable Aviation Caucus briefing
- Key industry partner for the launch of the Senate Sustainable Aviation Caucus
- ACAF Comment Submission to USDA
- ACAF Comment Submission to the House Ways & Means Committee
Securing Key Media Wins & Reaching Local Audiences
We have built a robust earned media operation working to secure interviews and news stories across the country to help drive our messaging out to target state audiences.
Equally as valuable is the grassroots and grasstops writing campaign we have assembled to push our key messages in newspapers across our target states. Our efforts have complemented our thought leadership positioning and media coverage to help create an outside-in approach to targeting legislators at the federal and state levels.
- Wichita Eagle: Sustainable Aviation Fuel Could Help Clear the Air
- Des Moines Register: The fate of sustainable aviation fuel is in the hands of Biden regulators
- Toledo Blade: Ohio is Poised to Power the Next Generation of Flight
- Albany Times Union: A Chance for New York to Decrease Emissions from Air Travel
- Agri-Pulse: Collaboration with Farmers is Essential to Building America's Sustainable Aviation Fuel Market
- Detroit News: Bill will help drive sustainable aviation
- Des Moines Register: Clean aviation fuels check the boxes for agriculture, for America
- Aiken Standard: Clean aviation fuels can take flight from South Carolina
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we look ahead to our second year, our mission as a coalition will stay the same: to educate voters and policymakers about the many benefits of clean aviation fuels, including:
- Promoting American economic growth and job creation,
- Harnessing American innovation to reduce emissions, and
- Bolstering American national security.
We are pleased to see the re-election of many of the
Congressional Sustainable Aviation Caucus and the Senate Sustainable Aviation Caucus, and we look forward to working with members across both sides of the aisle to advance our priorities next year.
Specifically, our coalition will continue to advocate for:
- Extending the existing federal incentives to scale SAF, including a long-term extension and enhancement of the Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit (IRS Section 45Z) to provide long-term investment certainty for clean fuel producers and the full value chain.
- Enhancing and strengthening the federal SAF-specific grant programs and other mechanisms that complement existing incentives and derisk investment.
- Adopting new state-level SAF incentives and policies that are stackable with and will complement existing federal incentives.
- Removing existing regulatory barriers to scaling SAF production and clearing hurdles for new SAF feedstocks.
- Incentivizing and giving flexibility for America’s farmers to invest in regionally appropriate climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices that are scientifically proven to reduce lifecycle emissions, as well as other complementary policies to help accelerate US leadership, competition and innovation.
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