1. Carbon emissions - not a problem if you synthesize the jet fuel out of carbon dioxide in the air. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/18/e-saf-jet-fuel-... it's expensive today but with cheap-enough energy, such as with abundant solar and wind power, it won't always be.
2. Air quality - If energy is so cheap that you can literally make jet fuel, it follows that we'd stop "burning stuff" for any other reason. No more coal or natural gas plants, gasoline or diesel engines, heating with natural gas or propane. Jet planes' air pollution is a tiny fraction of all those sources. I could live with that.
You honestly think “If we can just invent a magic solution cheaply we can keep burning stuff”
Is the answer?
The problem with "burning stuff" is twofold:
1. Carbon emissions - not a problem if you synthesize the jet fuel out of carbon dioxide in the air. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/18/e-saf-jet-fuel-... it's expensive today but with cheap-enough energy, such as with abundant solar and wind power, it won't always be.
2. Air quality - If energy is so cheap that you can literally make jet fuel, it follows that we'd stop "burning stuff" for any other reason. No more coal or natural gas plants, gasoline or diesel engines, heating with natural gas or propane. Jet planes' air pollution is a tiny fraction of all those sources. I could live with that.