California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) has supported an innovative revolution in alternative fuels. Those fuels have replaced more than 2.5 billion gallons of petroleum fuel in the past 12 months, providing Californians with cleaner alternatives. The California Air Resources Board has released a list of CARB-certified, third-party verifiers who will provide the next level of program quality control.

The LCFS regulation steadily drives down the carbon intensity of transportation fuels sold in California, resulting in cleaner fuels. Third-party verification provides an additional check that program data is complete and accurate, and that credits generated under the program represent additional and enforceable emission reductions.

The addition of third-party verification provides even more security and transparency to a very successful program focused on reducing emissions by supporting the transition to cleaner fuels. Third-party verification also provides additional ‘boots-on-the-ground’ to assist CARB staff with ensuring proper compliance with the regulation.

—CARB Executive Officer Richard Corey

Only verifiers accredited by CARB can provide verification services for entities subject to the LCFS regulation. All verifiers must meet specific requirements that include prescreening for education and professional experience and completion of required training. Individual accredited verifiers work in teams under the direction of companies accredited by CARB as LCFS verification bodies. CARB completed a comprehensive, in-person training for verifier accreditation, including an accreditation exam, in the fourth quarter of 2019.

CARB is accepting new applications for accreditation of verification bodies and individual verifiers on an ongoing basis and will offer accreditation training sessions in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 for new verifiers. CARB plans to offer additional training as needed, to ensure a sufficient number of verifiers.

Compliance with the LCFS began in 2011. The program is designed to lower the carbon intensity in fuels by assessing each step in their production, from extraction to combustion. Fuels are compared to an annually declining baseline. If a fuel has a carbon intensity above that baseline it generates a deficit for the producer. If the intensity is below the baseline it can generate credits which may then be sold to a producer who has a deficit.