By Kathy Bergren, Director, Federal Government Relations, Gevo
As the 2026 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook highlights, policy changes have presented both challenges and opportunities in U.S. energy development during the past year. Since BCSE and BloombergNEF released the Factbook in February, recent global events have further highlighted the need for greater diversification and increased supply to protect both energy and economic security. Rising demand is outweighing policy shifts and driving development and deployment of renewable fuels, including aviation biofuels, or sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and high-integrity, durable carbon removal.
Carbon Removal Hits New Milestones
Demand for carbon removals reached 57 million metric tons in 2025, roughly double 2024 levels. A third of purchased removal credits, or around 19 million metric tons, came from bio-based approaches, including bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) credits.
Gevo’s BECCS credits represent much of this growth. We recently reached the milestone of 500,000 carbon dioxide removal certificates issued by Puro.earth from our Gevo North Dakota facility. With an A-rating, 1,000-year storage permanence, and significant growth in demand for removals, these credits demonstrate that high-integrity carbon dioxide removal is scalable and deliverable today.
Policy Support and Market Trends Drive Sustainable Aviation Fuel Growth
The growing demand for carbon removal supports Gevo’s plans to scale alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) SAF production and create new markets for farmers engaged in modern regenerative agricultural practices. As the Factbook notes, SAF remains a bright spot for renewable fuels, with production increasing an estimated 111% year-on-year in 2025.
Policies such as international SAF usage goals and extension of the U.S. Section 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit contribute to SAF growth. At the same time, domestic jet fuel demand is expected to grow 2.3 billion gallons per year over the next decade, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This demand growth drives the scale-up of cost-competitive U.S. SAF production, including Gevo’s integrated ATJ SAF. Today, U.S. oil refineries are not structured to increase jet fuel production, leaving the United States vulnerable to higher imports and higher prices as demand for jet fuel increases.
Following the start of military action in Iran in late February, jet fuel prices in the spot market more than doubled. New ATJ SAF production would leverage the U.S. advantage in agriculture productivity and excess capacity in on-road fuel production to meet much of the rising U.S. demand while delivering new domestic energy capacity and rural economic growth.
Gevo supplies compliance markets such as those types of markets operating in Oregon, California, Washington and Canada. Performance-based clean fuel programs credit the lifecycle emissions reduction of transportation fuels – including carbon absorbed from the atmosphere by growing agricultural feedstocks and biogenic carbon captured via CCS during fuel production.
The Intersection of Carbon Removal, CCS, and SAF
When we sell renewable fuels into standard transportation markets, the carbon removal achieved through CCS (as well as other lifecycle emissions reductions) becomes available to meet demand in the growing carbon removal market. By optimizing the mix between low-carbon fuel markets and carbon removal markets, Gevo maximizes both value and carbon impact. Using abundant, sustainably produced agricultural feedstocks enables multiple uses and products from the same farmland and feedstocks, including food, fuel, and now carbon removal. By tracking, measuring and verifying across the supply chain, we can provide wins across the board – from farmers in rural America all the way to airline passengers.
The opportunities to deliver value, integrity, and performance by meeting the rising demand for SAF and durable carbon removal continue to drive sustainable energy supply and economic security forward. And as recent global events remind us, a diverse and growing energy supply protects us all against energy price and supply disruptions.
About the author: Kathy Bergren is the Director of Federal Government Relations for Gevo. Gevo is a next-generation diversified energy company committed to fueling America’s future with cost-effective, drop-in fuels that contribute to energy security, abate carbon, and strengthen rural communities to drive economic growth.