Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): An Overview of Current Laws and Legislation Introduced in the 119th Congress

Updated February 4, 2026

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): An Overview of Current Laws

and Legislation Introduced in the 119th Congress

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is fuel derived from

“sustainable” sources that meets aviation technical

standards. Potential benefits of SAF include assisting with

reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation sector and

assisting with rural economic development. Challenges

could include high SAF production costs and differing tax,

environmental, and transportation policy goals.

Following years of legislative attention to renewable fuels

for road transportation (e.g., the renewable fuel standard

and biofuel tax incentives), Congress has taken action on

sustainable fuels for air transportation. Among other

actions, Congress supported SAF in P.L. 117-169

(commonly known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,

or IRA), which provides tax incentives and grants, and

modified that support in P.L. 119-21 (commonly known as

the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA). Some

Members have introduced measures to either increase

support (e.g., H.R. 1719; 119th Congress) or decrease

support (e.g., H.R. 311; 119th Congress) for SAF. In

addition, some Members established the Congressional

Sustainable Aviation Caucus in 2024. This CRS product

briefly covers recent legislative action for SAF and efforts

in the 119th Congress that pertain to SAF.

SAF and Sustainability

One of the requirements for SAF is that it be derived from a

sustainable feedstock. SAF is a global commodity. As such,

national and international organizations and agencies have

varying definitions for both SAF and sustainable. The

International Air Transport Association (IATA) defines as

sustainable “something that can be continually and

repeatedly resourced in a manner consistent with economic,

social and environmental aims, and conserves an ecological

balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.” IATA

also states that SAF can be made from either biological

resources (e.g., biofuel) or alternative resources (e.g.,

power-to-liquid fuel). One way to measure SAF

sustainability is with a lifecycle assessment (LCA).

SAF Certification

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certifies

aircraft to operate on a fuel approved by the standards

development organization ASTM International (ASTM).

There are 11 ASTM-approved SAF production pathways,

all of which fall under either technical standard

specification ASTM D7566 or ASTM D1655. Each SAF

production pathway includes a specific feedstock or

feedstocks, conversion process, and blending limitation. For

example, some SAF can be blended at a maximum 50%

ratio with a petroleum counterpart. A small number of

demonstration flights have been carried out with 100%

SAF, but no current ASTM standard allows broad use of

pure SAF.

SAF Data

Limited SAF production and consumption data are

available. One source is the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA), which reports public data for the

Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), including the registration

of renewable jet fuel (RJF) for the program. EPA reports

that approximately 240 million gallons of domestic RJF and

47 million gallons of foreign-produced RJF were registered

for the RFS in 2025. EPA reports that approximately 39

million gallons of domestic RJF and 73 million gallons of

foreign RJF were registered for the RFS in 2024. The

Energy Information Administration (EIA) has an “Other

Biofuels” category for some of its reports that includes

SAF. However, the SAF data in this category are not parsed

out for public use.

It is not clear how many commercial SAF production

facilities currently operate in the United States. According

to various resources from the federal government, the news

media, and others, there are both small-scale and large-scale

commercial facilities in operation (e.g., the 30 million

gallons/year Montana Renewables plant and the 235 million

gallons/year Diamond Green Diesel plant). Researchers

have reported that SAF production could increase in

connection with renewable diesel plants, some that are

already operational and some that are expected to come

online.

SAF makes up a fraction of the aviation fuel used in the

United States. EIA projects that SAF will make up about

2% of U.S. jet fuel consumption in 2026. The FAA

forecasts that 25.4 billion gallons of jet fuel and aviation

gasoline were consumed in U.S. civil aviation aircraft in

2025; it forecasts that 27 billion gallons will be consumed

in 2030. In 2021, the Biden Administration launched a

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, which calls for

at least 3 billion gallons of SAF production per year by

2030.

SAF Enacted Laws

In January 2026, CRS identified six enacted laws from the

117th-119th Congresses (2021-2026) that contain the term

“sustainable aviation fuel.” This section summarizes the

SAF provisions in those laws.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-328),

grants the Secretary of Transportation the authority to

“make discretionary grants to primary airports for airportowned infrastructure required for the on-airport

distribution, blending, or storage of sustainable aviation

fuels that achieve at least a 50 percent reduction in lifecycle

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Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): An Overview of Current Laws and Legislation Introduced in the 119th Congress

greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions.” The FAA administers

this effort under its Airport Improvement Program (AIP).

IRA Section 13203 established a SAF tax credit (26 U.S.C.

§40B) worth a minimum of $1.25/gallon and a maximum of

$1.75/gallon for SAF produced in the United States. The

amount of the credit depended on the lifecycle GHG

emission reduction percentage of the fuel. In order to

qualify for the credit, the fuel must have had a lifecycle

GHG emission reduction percentage of at least 50% as

compared with petroleum-based jet fuel; this reduction

percentage qualified the fuel for a $1.25/gallon tax credit.

An extra $0.01/gallon was added for every one percentage

point by which the lifecycle GHG emission reduction

percentage exceeded 50%. Because GHG emissions may

not be reduced more than 100%, this supplementary amount

implicitly could not exceed $0.50/gallon (i.e., a maximum

tax credit of $1.75/gallon). The credit expired December

31, 2024.

IRA Section 13704 established a clean fuel production

credit (26 U.S.C. §45Z), which initially had a carve-out for

SAF. The value of the credit (i.e., the special rate) for SAF

was up to $1.75/gallon depending on the fuel’s lifecycle

GHG emissions and the taxpayer’s compliance with IRA

wage and apprenticeship requirements. Eligible fuels were

required to emit no more than 50 kilograms of CO2 (or CO2

equivalent) per 1 million British thermal units (mmBtu).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) states, “The amount of

the credit is based on the transportation fuel’s emissions

factor, which is a calculation of the fuel’s emissions rate

against the baseline emissions rate.” The above SAF tax

credit is effectively replaced by the clean fuel production

credit starting in 2025. Under the IRA, the credit was

originally scheduled to expire on December 31, 2027.

IRA Section 40007 establishes a grant program for eligible

entities in the United States that produce, transport, blend,

or store SAF, among other activities. Section 40007 is

administered by the FAA via the Fueling Aviation’s

Sustainable Transition (FAST) grants program.

The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act

for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023 NDAA; P.L. 117-263, §324)

grants the Secretary of Defense—who is using Secretary of

War as a “secondary title” under Executive Order (E.O.)

14347 dated September 5, 2025—the authority to “conduct

a pilot program on the use of sustainable aviation fuel by

the Department of Defense [DOD].” The law gives DOD—

which is using the Department of War as a “secondary title”

under E.O. 14347—until the end of FY2028 to implement a

plan to use SAF, and it gives the DOD Secretary the

authority to waive the use of SAF at a facility under the

pilot program given certain conditions (e.g., the use of SAF

is not feasible due to a lack of domestically available SAF

or a national security contingency). The FY2023 NDAA

requires DOD to give notice to Congress about certain

aspects of the pilot program.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42),

gives the Secretary of Transportation the authority to “make

discretionary grants … to primary or nonprimary airports

for the acquisition or construction costs related to airportowned, revenue-producing aeronautical fuel farms and

fueling systems, including mobile systems, that the

Secretary determines will promote the use of unleaded or

sustainable aviation fuels on a non-exclusive basis.” These

authorities are provided under the “Grants-in-Aid for

Airports” account.

Another law that uses the term sustainable aviation fuel is

the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-63).

Section 791 of the act requires the FAA Administrator to

enter an agreement with the National Academies of

Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to “carry out a study

examining airborne ultrafine particles [UFPs] and the effect

of such particles on airport-adjacent communities.” The

scope of the study is to “consider the concentration of UFPs

resulting from various aviation fuel sources including

aviation gasoline, sustainable aviation fuel, and hydrogen,

to the extent practicable,” among other considerations.

The OBBBA modifies the clean fuel production credit (26

U.S.C. §45Z). It removes the special rate for SAF (thereby

reducing the credit’s maximum value to $1 per gallon),

excludes any emissions attributed to indirect land use

change from the calculation of the fuel’s emissions rate,

disallows a negative emissions rate (with an exception for

transportation fuel derived from animal manure), prohibits

the use of foreign feedstocks in qualifying fuels (the bill

grants a credit for fuel derived from “feedstock which was

produced or grown in the United States, Mexico, or

Canada”), and extends the credit to December 31, 2029,

among other things. The act also modified the SAF excise

credit (26 U.S.C. §6246(k)) by not allowing the same fuel

to qualify for both 26 U.S.C. §6246(k) and 26 U.S.C. §45Z,

and terminated the excise credit after September 30, 2025.

Proposed SAF Legislation (119th Congress)

Several bills introduced in the 119th Congress would further

support SAF. For example, the Securing America’s Fuels

Act (H.R. 6518) would reinstate the special rate for SAF

under the clean fuel production credit (26 U.S.C. §45Z) and

extend the credit through December 2033. The Sustainable

Aviation Fuel Act (H.R. 1594) would establish a low

carbon aviation fuel standard, would require DOD to make

a bulk purchase of SAF for an amount not less than 10% of

what would be procured for operational purposes given

certain conditions, would extend the clean fuel production

credit (26 U.S.C. §45Z) through 2032, and would add SAF

to the energy credit, among other things. The Farm to Fly

Act (S. 144/H.R. 1719) would specify that SAF is eligible

for farm bill energy title programs, would require the U.S.

Department of Agriculture to take a comprehensive and

integrated approach for SAF advancement, and would add a

SAF definition to the farm bill energy title, among other

things. The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Information Act

(H.R. 4562) would require EIA to include SAF data in its

weekly and monthly reports.

At least one bill introduced in the 119th Congress would

diminish support for SAF. The Restoring Fuel Market

Freedom Act (H.R. 311), introduced in January 2025,

would repeal the SAF credit (since expired) and the clean

fuel production credit from the IRA.

Kelsi Bracmort, Specialist in Natural Resources and

Energy Policy

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Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): An Overview of Current Laws and Legislation Introduced in the 119th Congress

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