“People are going to fly whether we like it or not.” Now what?

The aviation sector has an emissions problem. Convincing people to fly less won’t cut it: The answer is fundamentally reinventing the fuel itself. In this episode of Future in Bloom, host Steph Speirs sits down with Dr. Staff Sheehan, a computer scientist-turned-chemist and five-time entrepreneur, to unpack sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). Staff breaks down what’s blocking cheap, abundant, clean electricity. He shares how this problem led him to co-found his fifth company, a nuclear energy startup called Project Omega. He makes the case that nuclear is the safest, most space-efficient, and most reliable baseload energy source available, and that its bad reputation is largely driven by misinformation and resistance from the fossil fuel industry. Along the way, Staff and Steph tackle greenwashing in aviation, the ethanol industry as a blueprint for SAF adoption, U.S. vs. EU policy approaches, the geopolitics of energy independence, the air quality crisis near airports, and why fossil fuel incumbents “play dirty” to maintain the status quo.