Follow the 10-inch pipeline that stretches south from Minneapolis–St Paul International Airport, and after 13 miles, you’ll find yourself at a potentially major future hub for sustainable aviation fuel in the Upper Midwest.
In a deal announced in September, the Koch Industries-owned Pine Bend Refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota would receive sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)—fuel made using non-petroleum feedstocks, like renewable materials or waste—blend it into its conventional jet fuel, and send the fuel mix through the pipeline to the airport, where it will be used by Delta Airlines and other carriers.
The proponents of the project, including its financial backers Deloitte and Bank of America, said last year that up to 60 million gallons of blended fuel, containing potentially up to 50 percent SAF, would be flowing by 2025, and they aim to produce 1 billion gallons of SAF per year, which would surpass the demand at the Minneapolis airport and make the hub a producer for additional airports around the country, and potentially the world. (There is no timeframe for the refinery to hit this larger target.)
But this project—and others like it—depends on financial-support frameworks like tax credits or loans that were set out under the Biden administration’s signature 2022 climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and which now may be taken away.
Late last month, Montana Renewables, one of only a few US SAF producers—and the planned provider of the first batches for the Minnesota hub—said that the first $782 million tranche of a $1.67 billion loan from the Department of Energy was undergoing a “tactical delay to confirm alignment with White House priorities.” (Montana Senator Steve Daines said on February 11 that the funding, which is factored in to finance the project, has since been unfrozen.)
Federal incentives like this are “on life support” under the Trump administration, says Scott Irwin, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois. According to Irwin, the Trump administration has so far shown it is willing to completely dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act and its funding, even if it means clawing back promises to farmers and businesses that have already begun implementing climate-smart work.
While state incentive programs along with low-carbon fuel standards still support SAF production, Irwin does not see who could step in to replace the federal government in the credit stack if the funding is withdrawn. “Without the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, SAF is dead in the water,” he says.
The Refinery Maths Already Didn’t Add Up
Late last year WIRED spoke to Jake Reint, vice president of external affairs for Flint Hills Resources, the company within Koch Industries that owns Pine Bend and several other refineries, petrochemical plants, and pipelines. (Flint Hills is the company that struck the deal with Delta and other corporate partners to use the blended fuel from Pine Bend.) Even before Donald Trump was elected, Reint articulated the challenges of ramping up the SAF industry.
Under the plan, Pine Bend will offload the SAF produced elsewhere from trucks operated by Shell, the distributor in the arrangement, and then blend it with its existing jet fuel mix. This will require Pine Bend to order specialty pumps that he claims won’t be delivered for a year—and they can’t be ordered until a thorough planning process is completed, including precise estimates for short-term demand.
