Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal confirms that air travel will eventually have to be abolished for the sake of the climate. It calls for high-speed rail — presumably powered by sustainable pixie dust — “at a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary.”

Until enough high-speed rail projects along the line of California’s failed boondoggle are in place, we will still be able to fly, so long as we wear our Covid masks and the plane is powered by sustainable alternative jet fuels:

The Biden administration announced a goal Thursday of replacing all jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, setting forth a plan to dramatically boost production of fuels made from waste or plants to drive down the environmental cost of flying. …

Aviation accounts for about 3 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

There is zero chance that eliminating air travel altogether would result in a perceptible change in the weather. But this is about ideology, not reality, so Biden is willing to print any amount of money to finance politically correct green jet fuel.

Currently, the alternative fuels have to be combined with conventional jet fuel, and eliminating fuel made from crude oil would require technological breakthroughs to allow engines to run entirely on the alternatives.

No problem; just mandate that all jet fuel has to be made entirely out of crabgrass. The technological breakthroughs will have to happen if they are mandatory.

Like the auto industry, airlines go along with green idiocy so as to receive carrots from Big Government instead of the stick. Biden’s budget calls for a $2/gallon tax credit for using fuels that reduce harmless carbon emissions.

The industry has also called for grants and loan programs to support investments in production facilities.

Until Biden issues the executive order mandating crabgrass fuel, “sustainable” aviation fuel will continue to consist of waste fat, oil, and grease mixed with real fuel from crude oil. Like more efficient normal fuel, it produces CO2 emissions.

The emissions savings come from either growing sources of carbon — which pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere — or using waste as an ingredient. Determining the benefits requires a complicated analysis known as a life cycle assessment.

According to Nikita Pavlenko, a fuels researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation, some sustainable jet fuel could actually produce higher emissions. But since emissions don’t do any harm anyway, it’s only the intention that counts.

Before the pandemic scrambled the industry, airlines paid about $2 per gallon for jet fuel. Airlines for America says the alternative fuels can cost at least three times as much.

That’s okay. We can just print the money:

Government subsidies could help bridge the gap.

Even with lavish subsidies financed through inflation, green fuel will make flying more expensive. Eventually, only the ruling elites will have the mobility and thereby the freedom enabled by air travel. That is the objective.

On a tip from Mr. Freemarket.