Economic and Emissions Impacts of Renewable Fuel Goals for Aviation in the US

Niven Winchester, Dominic McConnachie, Christoph Wollersheim and Ian A. Waitz

No 155003, 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a goal that one billion gallons of renewable jet fuel is consumed by the US aviation industry each year from 2018. We examine the economic and emissions impacts of this goal using renewable fuel produced from a Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process from renewable oils. Our approach employs an economy-wide model of economic activity and energy systems and a detailed partial equilibrium model of the aviation industry. If soybean oil is used as a feedstock, we find that meeting the aviation biofuel goal in 2020 will require an implicit subsidy from airlines to biofuel producers of $2.69 per gallon of renewable jet fuel. If the aviation goal can be met by fuel from oilseed rotation crops grown on otherwise fallow land, the implicit subsidy is $0.35 per gallon of renewable jet fuel. As commercial aviation biofuel consumption represents less than two per cent of total fuel used by this industry, the goal has a small impact on the average price of jet fuel and carbon dioxide emissions. We also find that, under the pathways we examine, the cost per tonne of CO2 abated due aviation biofuels is between $50 and $400.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env, nep-reg and nep-res
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Journal Article: Economic and emissions impacts of renewable fuel goals for aviation in the US (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea13:155003

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.155003

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