11/14/16 USDA Press release
USDA, Partners Celebrate First Wood-to-Jet-Fuel Commercial Flight
USDA and a Washington State University-Led Alliance Support Sustainable Jobs in Pacific Northwest
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2016 – Alaska Airlines today landed the first commercial flight powered in part by a new renewable fuel made of wood waste salvaged from private lands in Washington, Oregon and Montana. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack greeted the passengers for flight AS-4 arriving from Seattle at Washington Reagan National Airport to highlight this breakthrough in bioenergy that supports jobs and rural economies by developing a sustainable bio-products industry in the Pacific Northwest utilizing wood harvest left-overs that would otherwise go to waste.