Leading up to this week’s National Aviation Week (August 19-25), U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, announced on Friday the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition via Sustainable Aviation Fuel (FAST-SAF) and Low-Emission Aviation Technology (FAST-Tech) program awarded $291 million across 36 projects, including $36 million for projects in the State of Washington, to invest in building sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) supply chains and low-emission aviation technologies. Enacted through the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, Sen. Cantwell authored the program and urged its inclusion in the final bill to decarbonize the U.S. aviation sector and support innovative U.S.-based sustainable aviation projects and jobs.           

“This $36 million investment in the State of Washington’s growing sustainable aviation industry from my FAST-Tech and FAST-SAF programs will create jobs and cut emissions,” said Sen. Cantwell. “These grants will kick-start SAF production to supply airports across the Pacific Northwest, build low-emission engines for cleaner regional air travel, and develop technologies to reduce fuel burn and cut costs.”

The FAST-SAF and FAST-Tech programs aim to help state and local governments, airport sponsors, companies, research institutions and non-profits to produce, transport, blend or store sustainable aviation fuel and develop or apply low-emission aviation technologies. Sustainable aviation fuel reduces aviation lifecycle carbon emissions in modern jets by up to 80 percent in comparison to conventional petroleum-based jet fuel. The grant program incentivizes scaling up the production of SAF and will create jobs and economic opportunities for the nation’s farmers, manufacturers, start-ups and others in the biofuels supply chain.

In the State of Washington, bp America's Cherry Point Refinery in Blaine will receive $26,763,504, the second-highest amount awarded in the nation, to build infrastructure and buy equipment to allow them to produce sustainable aviation fuel for the first time by using renewable biomass feedstocks, creating 96 new jobs. ZeroAvia, which has a hydrogen-electric propulsion R&D facility at Everett's Paine Field, will receive $4,235,000 to accelerate the process of making their hydrogen-electric engines commercially available. Read the full list of WA’s awards here.

Sen. Cantwell has long been a champion of sustainable aviation fuels and lowering the carbon footprint of the aviation sector. In the recently enacted FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, Sen. Cantwell secured historic increases in FAA Research, Engineering and Development (RED) funding—$1.59 billion over five years—to help the U.S. stay competitive in the global race for innovative and sustainable aerospace technologies and maintain the country’s world-class aviation workforce. In March 2023, Sen. Cantwell held a hearing focused on innovative and sustainable aviation technologies, where she said, “This is about winning a competitive race for the future…Achieving net-zero aviation emissions by 2050, a target shared by industry and the federal government, will require shifts in commercial aircraft development and different fuel sources.” In 2019, Sen. Cantwell partnered with her Senate colleagues to introduce the Sustainable Skies Act, a version of which was also incorporated in the Inflation Reduction Act, to provide a tax credit to eligible fuel producers to increase the supply of sustainable aviation fuel in the U.S.