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The power of localized coalition building in accelerating the renewable fuels transition

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Written by
Liat Carlyle
Jonathan Castrodale
Jake Gentry

Published
February 24, 2025

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Controlling our energy destiny through regional clean fuel economies

Transitioning to renewable fuels is critical to decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors like aviation, long-haul trucking, and maritime. Yet investment in these technologies remains skeptical in an uncertain geopolitical landscape, and the sector continues to face challenges in cost-competitiveness and scale. Offtake agreement volumes from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) alone were over 8X lower in 2024 than their peak in 2022.

Like many emerging technologies, renewable fuels are reliant on public policy to incentivize investment in the transition and enable cost parity with fossil fuels. Given the current US administration’s anti-climate agenda, federal support for renewable fuels over the next 4 years could stagnate. This leaves the door open for states and municipalities to carry the transition forward, and one of the most powerful ways to do so is through localized coalition building.

The concept of coalition building is nothing new. Coalitions have been used to drive grassroots initiatives supporting renewable fuels, pass clean fuel standard (CFS) policies, and more. As stakeholders recognize the complexity and nuances of clean fuel supply chains, coalitions are increasingly being used to accelerate regional clean fuel economies. While this model is more important than ever in the US, it may also apply in other geographies as a catalyst for renewable fuel transitions.

However, as with collective action at large, these initiatives risk being limited to “talk” without commercial relationships and investment in resources needed for implementation.

Read on to learn why ecosystem-level coalitions can be so influential in the renewable fuels transition and how to convene a coalition geared towards action.

What is an “ecosystem approach” to renewable fuels?

Renewable fuels are inherently regional, with unique feedstocks and production pathways. A true ecosystem approach means convening every organization in your regional clean fuels value chain, from feedstock providers and utilities to blending facilities and policymakers.

The confines of your ecosystem will depend on your region's unique advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Pacific Northwest (PNW) in the US has an abundant supply of woody biomass, making a potential coalition span several states, whereas another coalition may be rooted in the favorable policy environment of one state.

The power of localized coalitions and renewable fuels

The science of renewable fuels is clear. Renewable fuels are proven to substantially lower the carbon intensity of transportation and deliver tangible benefits to human health through the reduction of harmful pollutants. Localized coalitions accelerate investment in these critical solutions by enabling your company and other value chain stakeholders to:

One of the biggest constraints to scaling renewable fuels is that businesses tend to think too narrowly about their role in the transition, whom they should engage, and their sphere of influence. When considering the scale and magnitude of the transition, it’s easy for organizations to become paralyzed by the complexity of the systems-level solutions required. A regional approach encourages you to include stakeholders who historically aren't involved, identify new ways of operating, and drive tactical progress at the local level.

Fossil jet fuel, for example, has a relatively conventional refining process, meaning that procurement typically only needs to include the airline and the producer. SAF production, on the other hand, depends on the feedstocks, technologies, policies, and infrastructure available in your region. Optimizing SAF procurement requires all stakeholders, including feedstock providers, policymakers, technology startups, research institutions, blending facilities, energy providers, transportation companies, and more, to help de-risk the entire SAF ecosystem.

Localized renewable fuel coalitions allow you to build a resilient regional energy economy independent from geopolitical turbulence, global supply chain shocks, and fossil fuel power dynamics. Backed by robust state or regional policy and funding, these ecosystems aren’t reliant on federal action yet still support a national energy independence agenda.

In addition to energy independence, localized renewable fuel economies are shielded from the ups and downs of federal or international politics. Even US oil and gas executives, who are poised to benefit greatly from President Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies, have stated that ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ isn’t a viable solution. And just last week, US oil and biofuel groups banded together to urge the Trump administration to boost renewable fuel mandates and provide more market certainty for refiners and fuel producers.

Businesses, including big oil producers, need durable public policy and market stability to make sound, long-term investments, both of which regional clean fuel economies can provide independent from the federal landscape.

Regional renewable fuel ecosystems are supported by local feedstocks, resources, and workforces. With so many use cases and regional applications, these ecosystems have the potential to deliver sizable economic impact and ample new job opportunities to virtually any territory.

The benefits extend far beyond the economies of conventional fuels – leveraging local feedstock assets provides new revenue channels for existing industries and drives demand for infrastructure investment.

Taking a localized, ecosystem approach to the renewable fuels transition helps ensure that policies and provisions are in place to reinvest the economic benefits into vulnerable communities. These communities, who often live near refineries, airports, and other industrial complexes and suffer disproportionate health impacts from adverse air quality, must have a seat at the table when developing new renewable fuel assets.

For example, the 2021 Washington State Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) passed with robust environmental justice provisions thanks to a localized, cross-industry coalition working to amplify community voices while advocating for the legislation.

Use cases of localized renewable fuel coalitions

Regional renewable fuel coalitions produce public goods that benefit and transform the entire transportation sector, not just one stakeholder. These coalitions are particularly impactful when used to:

Pass state policies supporting renewable fuels

Localized coalitions have successfully advocated for the implementation of CFS policies in California, Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico, and coalitions like Clean Fuels New York and Pump Cleaner Fuel, Hawaii are working to pass similar legislation in their states.

Market-driven initiatives like CFS policies are an effective, proven mechanism for catalyzing the renewable fuels transition, but your coalition could also explore advocating for legislation around state tax credits, cap-and-invest programs, and government-backed fuel purchases.

Design public-private interventions that address specific market barriers to renewable fuels

Public policy, while foundational to scaling renewable fuels, is just one pillar of systemic change needed to accelerate the transition. Solutions must also consider feedstock and energy availability, infrastructure upgrades, financing and offtakes, and research and development.

The diverse, cross-sector nature of localized coalitions can seamlessly enable the systems-thinking required to tackle regional barriers and scale renewable fuel solutions. For instance, given the abundance of woody biomass but lack of supportive technology in the PNW, a coalition attempting to accelerate regional SAF production might first focus on interventions that de-risk various woody biomass-to-SAF pathways and technologies.

One real-life example demonstrating the power of localized, cross-sector coalitions in lowering market barriers to SAF is the Minnesota SAF Hub. The coalition has strategically prioritized and identified interventions around each pillar of systemic change, such as creating a demand consortium to make SAF more cost-competitive and partnering with the University of Minnesota to research local, next-generation feedstocks.

The long-term goal of localized coalitions is to enable feedstock-specific, economically vitalizing renewable fuel production that allows us to take our energy destiny back into our own hands.

Steps to meaningful coalition building

As mentioned earlier, renewable fuel coalitions that go beyond talk require a deeper sense of engagement than typical collective action initiatives. Below is a high-level framework for building a renewable fuels ecosystem rooted in action and impact.

1) Map your regional renewable fuels value chain

The first step to building a meaningful coalition is identifying all the stakeholders involved in your regional renewable fuels value chain. This will entail thinking beyond the confines of traditional fuel production and carefully considering what stakeholder groups financially benefit from the SAF transition and can help you leverage the unique assets of your region.

Keep in mind that you don’t need participation from all mapped stakeholder groups right off the bat. Which organizations will initially have the most meaningful role to play? Returning to the PNW example, you might determine that regionally specific feedstock providers like forest management companies are critical to SAF production and must be engaged early in the coalition building process.

Woody biomass in the forests of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Photo credit: iStock, Godadex

2) Align on a quantifiable north star

Collective action initiatives are often limited to talk due to lack of alignment around a north star or differing views on the nature of the problem. Once you’ve convened your founding coalition members, consider your region’s unique comparative advantages and the systemic barriers you need to address. Use these insights as the foundation for your coalition’s ultimate goal.

For example, the Minnesota SAF Hub, recognizing that lack of production limits the airline industry’s ability to decarbonize at scale, has set a north star of creating 1 billion gallons of SAF per year in Minnesota.

3) Evangelize the value proposition

Have every member document and share the coalition’s value proposition throughout their entire organization. What tangible business benefits does the coalition offer to each stakeholder? For instance, the business value to a feedstock supplier might be access to new customer channels and local, long-term revenue streams, whereas a corporation might primarily be interested in lower-cost Scope 3 environmental attribute credits.

Going through this process helps secure buy-in from all members and can unlock financial resources from stakeholder groups to support the initiative.

4) Create a go-to-market strategy for the coalition

Next, develop a formal business plan for your coalition. This will involve refining your value proposition, quantifying the return on investment (ROI) for each stakeholder group, and strategizing your membership and funding strategy. Will you convene as a for-profit, non-profit, or government-run entity? Do you need to leverage a membership model, or will you secure funding through other means? How will the overarching entity be structured, and do you need to hire an outside party to manage daily operations? Answering these questions, while sometimes tedious, will allow your coalition to focus on the most important part of your work – implementation.

5) Build a detailed roadmap to achieve milestones

Identify the specific market interventions necessary to make your initiative a success across the 5 pillars of systemic change – supportive policy, feedstocks and energy availability, infrastructure, financing and offtakes, and research and development. Then, create a sequenced theory of change by prioritizing which interventions to target first based on your regional advantages and disadvantages. These “baby steps” will get you to your north star.

Once you understand the order of market interventions, you can formalize dates for key milestones and outline how much each initiative will cost. At this stage, you should understand exactly what you can achieve, by when, and with how much capital. Building an implementation or “costed” plan at this level of detail helps keep stakeholders accountable, informs your investment and go-to-market strategy, and is a forcing function for action.

Tip for success: Celebrate wins along the way

As markets for renewable fuels like SAF cool in an uncertain political and regulatory landscape, offtakers and producers alike are beginning to right-size their goals. While your coalition should absolutely align around an ambitious north star, remember to celebrate key wins along the way.

The renewable fuels transition will not happen overnight – it requires the transformation of multiple, interrelated systemic barriers. Celebrating wins targeting any one barrier, like the Minnesota SAF Hub breaking ground on the state’s first SAF blending facility, is essential to keeping momentum alive.

The future of renewable fuels

The transition to renewable fuels is the next major leap in society’s evolution with transportation and fuels. These technologies offer enormous economic opportunity, regional energy independence, and tangible greenhouse gas reduction and human health benefits.

Like any major economic and technological transition, there are sizable systemic barriers to overcome, and no one company can tackle them alone. Shifting to renewable fuels will require participation from direct and indirect stakeholders up and down the value chain. High-impact coalitions use the power of this ecosystem to create thriving renewable fuel economies that localize and distribute benefits to all stakeholders.

Interested in exploring how to promote regional energy independence through renewable fuels? Our team brings deep expertise in the science of renewable fuels and convening regional coalitions that break down the market barriers to meaningful change. Get in touch to learn more.

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