Supporting and advancing future marine fuels technologies and investments, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) to establish a consistent and reliable definition of sustainable marine fuels (SMF) to inform and coordinate with communities, industry, government, and other maritime stakeholders. Maritime Energy and Emissions Innovation Action Plan
(Action Plan), a summary of which was released in December 2024, builds on the 2023 U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonisation and identifies actions aimed at achieving a clean, safe, convenient, and affordable U.S. maritime transportation system. The Action Plan requires the federal government to define ‘sustainable marine fuels,’ which is critical to evaluating and determining future SMF production targets in the Action Plan as well as alternative fuels that are consistent with U.S. 2050 net emissions goals.