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Committee hears mixed testimony on alternative jet-fuel incentives in HB 2322
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Summary
House Finance received a staff briefing and pro/con testimony on HB 2322, which replaces a volumetric trigger for sustainable aviation fuel incentives with a date-certain timeline and clarifies carbon-intensity scoring; industry testifiers asked clarifications, while public-health advocates urged rejection.
House Finance Committee staff briefed members Feb. 6, 2026, on substitute House Bill 23 22, which changes how Washington would trigger and implement incentives for alternative jet fuel (sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF).
Tracy Taylor, staff to the committee, said the substitute eliminates a volumetric production threshold that previously triggered tax preferences and instead makes the incentives applicable during a fixed period from July 1, 2031, through June 30, 2046. The substitute also provides a carbon-intensity scoring methodology for alternative jet fuels that do not participate in the Clean Fuels program and clarifies that qualifying fuels must lower life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions relative to conventional jet fuel.
Representative Orcutt, speaking for an absent sponsor, said the change provides certainty to stakeholders and implementation timing, acknowledging initial higher costs for early adoption of new fuel sources but arguing that incentives will help scale use in aviation.
Support came from a small Washington refinery: Dallas Scholes (representing U.S. Oil & Refining Pacific; Tacoma) said his plant supplies jet fuel to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and asked the committee to clarify the bill's definition of "blender" or the geographic eligibility so Pierce County could participate.
Opposition testimony included Dr. Breck Lebegue (Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Climate and Health Task Force), who urged the committee to reject the bill as insufficiently ambitious on climate and public health. Dr. Lebegue argued policymakers should prioritize demand-reduction strategies (for example, limiting short-hop flights and building rail alternatives) rather than subsidizing alternative liquid fuels, which still produce combustion emissions.
Staff told the committee a draft fiscal note shows no state revenue impact in the current fiscal-note window because incentives would not begin until FY2032; the Department of Revenue noted one-time small administrative costs when the program begins. No committee action on HB 2322 was taken at this meeting.
