Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Regulation, Climate Claims, Community Impacts, and Litigation Risk

This CLE webinar will explore sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through a lifecycle legal framework that follows SAF from technology development and commercialization through federal aviation and environmental regulatory implementation and emerging dispute risk and strategic risk management.

SAF is widely viewed as a plausible pathway for reducing aviation greenhouse gas emissions, but efforts to scale SAF production through incentives and lifecycle carbon accounting frameworks are creating legal challenges involving intellectual property protection, aviation regulatory approvals, project financing, contractual risk allocation, and community impacts.

While SAF may advance climate mitigation objectives, it does not directly resolve localized aviation concerns such as aircraft noise and community air quality. As SAF markets mature, these dynamics may generate litigation risk across supply chains, project development, environmental reviews, and sustainability-related claims.

The panel will examine SAF fundamentals and production pathways, intellectual property strategies such as patents, trade secrets, licensing arrangements, and joint ventures. The experts will discuss the federal policy and regulatory landscape governing SAF deployment, including “Grand Challenge” production targets, the transition from the §40B SAF blending credit to the §45Z clean fuel production credit, lifecycle carbon accounting frameworks, and the FAA’s role in fuel approval, safety oversight, and environmental review.

Listen as our panel discusses litigation exposure and risk management strategies unique to SAF deployment, including disputes involving long-term fuel supply agreements, project financing and development risks, intellectual property conflicts, sustainability-related claims, and the role of community opposition to aviation activity. The panel will conclude with an examination of international positioning considerations, including how aviation stakeholders align SAF strategies within global aviation climate frameworks such as Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and maintain credibility across jurisdictions and markets.