Clean Fuel Standard requirements for participation

Complying with the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) includes registering with Ecology, reporting fuel sales, paying an annual fee, and purchasing credits if you’re a deficit holder.

Under the CFS, high-carbon fuels generate deficits. Producers and suppliers of these “regulated” fuels must comply with the CFS, including registering with Ecology and reporting fuel sales.

Producers and suppliers of low-carbon or “opt-in” fuels can choose to comply with the CFS in order to generate credits.

Certain high-carbon fuels do not generate deficits under the CFS. But producers and suppliers of these “exempt” fuels can also choose to comply and generate credits.

I want to...

Register and report in the Washington Fuels Reporting System
Access the Washington Fuels Reporting System - Credit Bank & Transfer System User Guide
Learn more about carbon intensity scoring (coming soon)

Who needs to register

Producers and suppliers of regulated fuels to Washington consumers must participate and register in the Washington Fuels Reporting System (WFRS). Regulated fuels include:

Gasoline
Diesel
Ethanol and blends
Biomass-based diesel and blends
Fossil compressed natural gas (CNG)
Liquid natural gas (LNG)
Liquid-compressed natural gas (L-CNG)
Fossil Propane, liquefied petroleum gas
Hydrogen, compressed or liquefied
Any other liquid or non-liquid fuel

Producers of low-carbon fuels may participate. If they do, they’ll need to register. Low-carbon fuels include:

Electricity
Bio-CNG, bio-LNG, or bio-L-CNG
Alternative jet fuel
Renewable propane

Producers selling non-exempt and exempt fuels must also report the exempt fuels, but reporting exempt fuels will not generate deficits. Producers of low-carbon versions of these fuels may opt-in to generate credits. Exempt fuels include:

Aviation fuel
Marine fuel
Railroad fuel
Offroad fuel used for agriculture, logging, mining, and other uses

Refer to our guidance: Participant Guidance on Documenting Exempt Fuels: Clean Fuel Standard Program Guidance

Registration and getting started

To participate, you need to register through the Washington Fuels Reporting System (WFRS). This system manages:

Fuel pathway certification
Fuel transactions
Credit generation and transfers

To register

Follow the step-by-step user guide in the guidance document library.
Sign up for a Secure Access Washington (SAW) account.
Log into SAW, add the Climate Portal to your list of services, and create a profile.
After approval, access WFRS through the Climate Portal.

Account approval

Your account must be approved before you can access WFRS. After submitting your registration, you will receive a phone call from Ecology staff to finalize the process.

Public registered parties list

Read the current list of registered parties.

Reporting and compliance

Regulated and opt-in participants must:

Register to produce or import fuel in Washington.
Keep records of each fuel transaction.
Submit quarterly and annual reports through WFRS.

Quarterly reporting deadlines

Q1: Due by June 30
Q2: Due by Sept. 30
Q3: Due by Jan. 10
Q4: Due by March 31

When to expect credits

You must be registered, and your account must be approved before credits can be claimed. Credits are designated based on quarterly reports being submitted and, when necessary, reconciled with business partners.

Use the Clean Fuel Standard Obligation Calculator to estimate the number of credits or deficits you may generate in the program. This calculator is a tool for estimation only. It does not change any individual entity's obligations under the Clean Fuel Standard.

Annual Reporting

Each reporting party must submit an Annual Report on WFRS summarizing the four quarterly reports from that year and attesting to their accuracy. Annual Reports must meet the requirements outlined in WAC 173-424-430.

Instructions on submitting an annual report can be found in Section 6 of the WFRS-CBTS User Guide.

Annual Report deadline

Reporting opens: April 1 each year

Submission deadline: April 30 each year

Prerequisites: All previous quarterly and annual reports must be submitted. The status for each Quarterly Report must be either:

The initial submission
Corrections that have been approved by Ecology

To begin your Annual Report, follow these steps:

Log in to WFRS as a Contributor or Administrator.
Click the "CFS Reports" tab in the navigation bar.
Scroll to the bottom and select "View Annual Reports."
Find the reporting year and click "Go to Annual Report."
Review the summary of all quarterly reports. Click "Go to Details" on any fuel type to return to Quarterly Reports, if needed.

At the bottom of the Annual Report page, you will find the Annual Summary, which includes:

Credit and deficit balances for the reporting year.
Automatic credit retirement calculations for compliance purposes.
Final accounting of credits and deficits carried over to the next year.
An option to pledge credits toward that year's Credit Clearance Market.

Note: The credit and deficit values in the Annual Summary might not always match the totals from the four Quarterly Report sections. This is because Quarterly Reports do not account for retroactive credit or deficit adjustments. Refer to the Ledger rather than the Quarterly Reports for the most accurate comparison.

Before submitting, you must check the box confirming the accuracy of your Annual Report.
If you need to upload a document or add a comment without submitting, click "Save Annual Report."
If applicable, upload any required documents, such as the MCON report, if it must be reuploaded for the Annual Report.
When ready, click "Submit Annual Report."

Important

Only users with Administrator or Signatory Authority roles can submit the Annual Report.
Once submitted, your credit and deficit balance will be updated in the Ledger tab.

Credits and compliance

Credits can be used to meet compliance obligations. For example, credits bought in any year can cover deficits in the current compliance period.

Credit Clearance Market requirements and pricing

WAC 173-424-570(2) requires Ecology to publish the maximum price for the Credit Clearance Market (CCM) by the first Monday of April each year. If a CCM becomes necessary in 2025, the maximum price for credits will be $251.94 per credit.

Please note that while the maximum price has been set, we will not know whether a Credit Clearance Market will be required until May 15. The market will only take place if there are regulated parties with unmet compliance obligations from the prior compliance period. If a CCM is held, it will run from June 1 to July 31.

Note on automatic credit retirement

The rules for credit retirement will be outlined in our guidance. Credits do not expire and can be bought, sold, and used for compliance at any time.

You can find more information on this subject in WAC 173-424-510(6) and (7).

Program fee

Program participants must pay a fee to cover the cost of program administration.

Fees are based on the program budget, and participants will be invoiced each year.

2024 fee overview

All participants pay a flat participation fee of $274.
Deficit generators may pay additional fees, depending on the amount of deficit generated.

Invoices will be sent in May or June, and payment is due within 30 days. Late payments may incur a fee.

For more details, see the guidance document library.

All program participants are required to pay a participation fee.

The 2024 fee was proposed Feb. 1, 2024, followed by a 30-day public comment period. Ecology received comments during this time. To read a full description of the budget estimate, workload analysis, and additional information about the 2024 fee setting process, please see the guidance document library.

All invoices will be due within 30 days of receipt and must be paid using our online payment system. Ecology plans to send invoices in May-June.

The final 2024 fee is based on 372 registered participants as of March 14, 2024.

Estimated 2024 program budget: $ 2,036,913

All participants (both credit and deficit generators) pay 5% ($101,845) of the program cost.
Deficit generators pay 95% ($1,935,067 ) of the program cost.

	Fee amount per participant	Number of participants	Budget allocation per category
Participation fee All program participants, 5% of the estimated program cost	$274	372	$101,846
Category 1 Top 30% of deficit generators, 70% of deficit fee amount	$104,195	13	$1,354,547
Category 2 Middle 30% of deficit generators, 20% of deficit fee amount.	$29,770	13	$387,014
Category 3 Lower 30% of deficit generators, 10% of deficit fee amount	$14,885	13	$193,507
Lowest 10% of deficit generators Only pay the participation fee	$0	117	$0

* Numbers have been rounded so as not to include decimals for ease of use.

All invoices will be due within 30 days of receipt and must be paid using our online payment system. A late fee surcharge of $50 or 10% of the amount indicated on the billing statement, whichever is more, may be assessed for any fee received more than 30 days past the due date for fee payment.

All program participants are required to pay a participation fee.

This is a proposed fee amount based on the estimated budget. After 30 days of public comment, we will post the final fee amount on March 15. After that date, the fee will be set for the remainder of calendar year 2024.

The comment period on the proposed fee closed March 1, 2024.

To read a full description of the budget estimate, workload analysis, and additional information about the 2024 fee, please see the guidance document library.

The 2024 proposed fee is based on 380 registered participants as of Jan. 30, 2024.

Estimated 2024 program budget: $2,036,913

All participants (both credit and deficit generators) pay 5% ($101,845) of the program cost.
Deficit generators pay 95% ($1,935,067) of the program cost.

	Fee amount per participant	Number of participants	Budget allocation per category
Participation fee All program participants, 5% of the estimated program cost	$268	380	$101,845.67
Category 1 Top 30% of deficit generators, 70% of deficit fee amount	$104,195	13	$1,354,547.34
Category 2 Middle 30% of deficit generators, 20% of deficit fee amount	$29,770	13	$387,013.53
Category 3 Lower 30% of deficit generators, 10% of deficit fee amount	$14,885	13	$193,506.76
Lowest 10% of deficit generators Only pay the participation fee	$0	117	0

All program participants are required to pay a participation fee.

2023 final fee, based on 130 registered participants on March 15, 2023:

Each deficit generator will pay: $50,649
Each credit generator will pay: $982

Estimated 2023 program budget: $1,865,999

Deficit generators pay 95% ($1,772,699) of the program cost.
Credit generators pay 5% ($93,299) of the program cost.

Program costs	Total cost ($)
Ecology and Commerce staffing	1,018,919
Professional Service Contracts: Fuel supply forecast (Commerce)	119,320
Professional Service Contracts: Cost-benefit analysis (Ecology)	75,467
Section 7 Stakeholder Advisory Panel	4,000
WA Fuel Reporting System	648,293
Total estimated costs	1,865,999

Invoicing:

Deficit generators were invoiced in the second quarter of 2023.
Credit generators* were invoiced in the third quarter of 2023.

*Credit generators may choose to designate a credit aggregator to report on their behalf; however, the fee rule requires the registered credit generator be invoiced for participation fee.

All invoices are due within 30 days of receipt and must be paid using our online payment system.

Contact information

Clean Fuel Standard Team
CFS@ecy.wa.gov

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