Professors Lara B. Fowler and Mike Helbing publish paper with alumni

Penn State Dickinson Law faculty, staff, and students collaborated with a Penn State PhD candidate to publish an interdisciplinary paper about state-level policies related to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Published in Lewis and Clark's Environmental Law (ELR), this paper entitled "State Policy and Regulatory Approaches to Sustainable Aviation Fuel Across the United States" is part of research conducted on sustainable aviation fuel law and policy under the Federal Aviation Administration-funded ASCENT Center of Excellence. The Center of Excellence has been in place since 2015, bringing together academic researchers, industry, government and non-government partners, and interested parties.

Authors of the paper include Somtochukwu Attamah ’21 LLM, who will graduate with his PhD in educational policy in August 2026; Mary Johnson ’25; Mike Helbing, the executive director of the Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy and an adjunct at Penn State Dickinson Law; and Lara B. Fowler, professor of teaching, Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State's lead project investigator for the law and policy focus under the ASCENT Center of Excellence.

SAF represents a critical lever for achieving near-term decarbonization of the aviation industry. SAF can be manufactured to be used in existing aircraft and fueling systems, allowing manufacturers to achieve lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) savings without making modifications to the existing aircraft fleet. However, fluctuating federal policy and variations in state approaches create a patchwork of incentives and regulations that can be hard to track.

In the article, the Penn State team outlines the federal policy context and then conducts a comparative analysis of SAF-related policy frameworks across the 50 states. This includes a variety of government solutions offered in the form of enacted and proposed statutes, clean fuel standards, executive actions, and public-private initiatives. The policies are contextualized with recent changes to federal law.

Professor of Teaching Lara B. Fowler is an attorney, mediator, and facilitator who works at the intersection of law, science, and working with communities. She focuses on challenging questions related to energy, food and agriculture, water, climate, community resilience, and sustainability. In addition to teaching and research, she is the faculty advisor for Dickinson Law’s Alternative Dispute Resolution student group; a nominator for The EarthShot Prize; the jury chair for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize; the vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Journal board of directors; and a board member for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Science and Technology Policy Program (COPA STEP).

Mike Helbing currently serves as a Staff Attorney for Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy, where he is actively involved in many of the Center’s research and educational activities. Prior to beginning this role, Mike worked in positions that integrated law with science and policy.