From shuttered mills to jet engines: Can Delta’s green fuel plan keep Georgia forests profitable?

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Confronting a collapsed timber market and billions in rural economic losses, state agriculture officials and corporate executives launched an alliance Wednesday to turn Georgia pine into jet fuel.

The Georgia Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Coalition — backed by the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Delta Air Lines, the Georgia Forestry Association and the Georgia Farm Bureau — pitched the emerging fuel technology as a potential buyer for millions of tons of stranded wood.

However, lawmakers and timber growers warn that commercial refining remains years away, leaving family tree farmers with an immediate financial crisis they may not survive.

A wave of paper mill shutdowns across South Georgia, including International Paper facilities in Savannah and Riceboro, and Georgia-Pacific in Cedar Springs, wiped out an immediate market for roughly 8.3 million tons of timber annually, according to the University of Georgia’s 2026 Timber Outlook. About half of that supply came directly from Georgia land.

State forestry officials estimate those shutdowns carry a $2.9 billion annual economic hit to southeast Georgia through direct losses, indirect impacts and lost wages.

The closures compounded the destruction left by Hurricane Helene, which damaged 8.9 million acres of forestland and caused an estimated $1.28 billion in timber losses, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission.

State Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said the problem reaches across state lines, with more than 40 pulp and paper mills closing across the southeastern U.S. since 2015, erasing 43 million tons of regional demand.

“Farmers, timberland owners, producers don’t need another farm program,” Harper said. “We need market access. That’s what this conversation is about.”

Private families own more than 90% of Georgia’s forests, but keeping those trees in the ground is becoming economically unfeasible for many.

Replanting costs up to $600 an acre. With paper mills gone, timber groups report landowners face mounting financial pressure to clear-cut and sell to residential developers or solar companies.

“Our landowners across the state need those healthy markets to sell those trees into, so that they know that their 20-plus year investment is going to have a return for their families,” said Tiffany Starr, managing director at Timberland Investment Resources.

Georgia Forestry Commission Director Tim Lowrimore pushed back against the idea that Georgia has an oversupply problem, calling the timber an asset, but acknowledged unmanaged, neglected forests face severe wildfire and disease risks if markets dry up.

Meanwhile, airlines face their own looming deadline.

Jet fuel accounts for roughly 90% of aviation emissions. While green fuel can reduce lifecycle flight emissions by up to 80%, worldwide production of sustainable fuel cannot meet global flight demand for even a single week.

Delta Air Lines President Peter Carter said the company wants to fuel flights out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with sustainable blends. Beyond corporate climate goals, upcoming European Union mandates will soon penalize or ground international flights that do not use green fuel blends.

The catch is cost. Green jet fuel is two to three times more expensive than standard crude petroleum.

Because airlines operate on narrow profit margins and historically pass fuel spikes directly to travelers, the transition raises questions about how much of that premium will land on passenger ticket prices.

Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, acknowledged that commercial pricing remains unknown and said the state is still a year away from a basic demonstration project.

“I don’t think we have an answer yet on what the cost could be, but when we get to scale, that’s when we start to understand where this can meet the demand,” Kirkpatrick said.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, who is also a timber producer, openly questioned whether landowners can afford to wait.

“Why would I invest $500 to $600 an acre right now, in 2026, for a future 20 years down the road? It looks unstable,” Burns said. “Five years is a long way. And we are expecting people now, how do they sustain themselves over the next five years?”

In May, Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 134, creating transferable tax credits for biofuel production to help early-stage ventures raise upfront private capital.

Georgia already has an operational facility in Soperton, where LanzaJet produces about 10 million gallons of sustainable fuel annually from ethanol and agricultural waste.

However, scaling commercial refining capacity to absorb millions of tons of stranded Georgia pine carries steep hurdles. Industry estimates presented to the Georgia Senate’s Study Committee on Advancing Forest Innovation indicate that commercial-scale biorefineries typically take three to seven years to obtain permits and build, requiring hundreds of millions of dollars in capital per facility. Coalition leaders and forestry advocates are expected to urge the General Assembly during the 2027 legislative session to consider state production tax credits and financial incentives to help attract those refinery investments to Georgia.