Now, though, with jet fuel – essentially kerosene – refined and sold on the U.S. Gulf Coast selling for as little as 85 cents a gallon, airlines no longer have any serious interest in biofuels. So don’t believe whatever biofuel-boosting statements they may continue to put up on their websites and into their news releases.
Here are three interrelated reasons why:
Biofuels Are Now, And May Always Be Too Expensive
When jet fuel cost more than $3 a gallon, and oil was over $100 a barrel and appeared to be headed ever-higher, it made sense for airlines to look into both their technical ability to burn biofuels in their planes’ jet engines as an alternative fuel and ways to improve the currently very limited supply of biofuels. There probably never has been an airline executive who would prefer burning carbon-based fuels over a cleaner, greener fuel – so long as prices are comparable. And over the last decade there’s been growing public and regulatory pressure on airlines to reduce their carbon and other emissions, further heightening airline executives’ interest in the development of biofuels. So there was some, albeit limited, natural desire in the industry to find an affordable alternative to conventional, carbon-based jet fuel.
For the most part, they successfully have nurtured that perception among the public even though in reality they have done little more than play around the edges of biofuel experimentation.