CARB Settles AltAir Paramount Abuses of Low Carbon Fuel

This legal tangle goes back to November 2020, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and AltAir Paramount LLC reached a settlement where AltAir agreed to pay $132,500 in penalties for violations of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation. CARB adopted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard  to incentivize innovative fuels that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The LCFS requires quarterly and annual reports to be submitted completely and accurately. CARB alleged that AltAir for the 2017 Reporting Period, and sold, supplied, offered for sale, and transported fuel into the State of California, but failed to report and submitted a report containing inaccuracies, misreported, or entered false quarterly and annual report information, which led to a failure to eliminate annual deficits. These are violations of the LCFS regulation.

During a CARB authorized account adjustment, CARB staff identified unauthorized changes made by AltAir account representatives, to reclassify certain fuel volumes and to add previously unreported gasoline sales.  The unauthorized fuel transactions had been added to the quarterly and annual reports and were confirmed with AltAir company representatives.  Due to the late reporting of the deficit imbalance AltAir was in violation of 95485 and subject to penalties of 95494(c).

AltAir has fully cooperated with CARB in this matter and has retired the necessary credits to satisfy their account imbalance.  AltAir has agreed to a civil penalty of $132,500 paid into two funds: $66,500 will go to CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund; and $66,000 will go to Tree Fresno to fund a Supplemental Environmental Project that will assess the efficacy of using vegetative barriers to reduce near-road pollution exposure.  AltAir is now in full compliance with the LCFS regulation.