Electric planes are expected to play a massive role in reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation industry in the future, but unfortunately, there’s still a long road ahead before commercial electric planes become the industry standard. In the meantime, we need to look at other ways of cleaning up the aviation industry. Boeing has one solution in the form of biofuel, which can cut the carbon emissions of a flight by up to 80 percent. Biofuels are thought to be carbon-neutral because the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants used to make the fuel should be equal to the carbon dioxide released when the fuel is burned. The biofuel Boeing is using is being made from agricultural waste at a refinery in Paramount, CA. Until now, Boeing has been using the biofuel for its own operations, but is now getting set to offer airlines the option of using biofuel for their flights, starting with flights coming from Everett and Seattle. Although the new fuel significantly cut emissions, what it doesn’t cut is the cost. In fact, the opposite is true. Since the price paid by the airline is set by its agreement with the provider, Boeing wasn’t able to give specifics on the cost differences but confirmed that the biofuel option is in fact more expensive than Jet A fuel. This might deter airlines from choosing the biofuel option when taking delivery of multimillion-dollar aircraft. As technology progresses, the price of biofuel will hopefully come down. Or, oil prices might rise enough in the future to make a biofuel option more appealing to airlines. With biofuel capable of cutting such a large percentage of emissions, from an environmental standpoint let’s hope that day arrives sooner rather than later.