Policy on Low Carbon Fuels

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), approved in 2009, is a scheme designed to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of the state’s overall fuel consumption. The program is administered by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). It has undergone some changes over the years, some of them the result of court challenges, others from periodic amendments to the program, but the key tenets of the program have remained in place.

Regulated parties (i.e. fossil fuel producers and importers) required to participate in the program need to show compliance on a yearly basis, with reports due on April 30 of each year. Regulated parties generate credits or deficits based on the amount of fossil fuel and low carbon fuels they marketed each year, and can achieve compliance