Distributors and resellers, marketers or jobbers

Read the Compliance Guidelines and Reporting overview, or visit these pages for more details:

1. Covered entities defined
2. Retailers and nonretail dealers
3. Distributors and resellers, marketers or jobbers (below)
4. Fuel terminal or fuel importer
5. Wholesale purchaser-consumer

Fuel distributors are regulated under PCC Chapter 16.60. For the purposes of compliance with PCC Chapter 16.60 and the administrative rules, fuel distributor, resellers, or marketers who have ownership of finished fuel products below the rack for sale in the City of Portland or who transport a finished fuel product into the City of Portland are subject to the regulations and were required to register  and select a compliance option by May 1, 2024. If you have not already registered, please register immediately to avoid enforcement procedures.

There are three primary components of the RFS that apply to distributors:

1. Biofuel minimum content requirements,
2. Carbon intensity standard,
3. Selecting a compliance option, and
4. Record keeping.

Biofuel minimum content requirements

Distributors in the City of Portland are required to meet the minimum biofuel content requirements for all fuel they distribute beginning on May 15, 2024. All diesel fuel distributed to retail stations, nonretail dealers, or wholesale purchaser-consumers must include a minimum of 15% biofuel content, from either renewable diesel or biodiesel. This requirement increases to 50% on May 15, 2026, and 99% on May 15, 2030.

The minimum biofuel content requirements will be enforced through random inspections of retail facilities to review product transfer documents and verify that products advertised and sold onsite are compliant with PCC Chapter 16.60. While enforcement of the minimum biofuel content requirements will be done at retail stations, distributors are still responsible for compliance and may be liable for penalties under PCC Chapter 16.60 if BPS determines the distributor is responsible for noncompliance.

Carbon intensity standard

All distributors operating in the city of Portland are also required to meet the carbon intensity standard in PCC Chapter 16.60. All biodiesel and renewable diesel sold in the City of Portland must have a carbon intensity equal to or less than 40g CO₂e/MJ as certified by DEQ’s Clean Fuels Program, approved carbon intensity values. Carbon intensity requirements apply to biofuel blendstock, not the final blended products, which may contain a portion of petroleum-based diesel fuel at a higher carbon intensity.

Compliance with the carbon intensity standard will be a partnership between distributors and fuel retailers, and possibly fuel importers or position holders if using book and claim compliance.

There are three compliance options available:

1. Product transfer documents. If distributors can maintain a fuel pathway code on at least one product transfer document from each delivery, then retailers and distributors can both comply with the carbon intensity standard this way. In this case, distributors need to provide retailers with a product transfer document from each fuel delivery showing a fuel pathway code issued by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to confirm the CI value of the fuel purchased is equal to or less than 40g CO₂e/MJ. No reporting required.

2. Book and claim. Another option to comply is book and claim compliance. Book and claim compliance requires quarterly reporting by fuel importers or position holders to the City in order to verify that on average fuels meet the carbon intensity standard. Covered entities using book and claim compliance will also have an opportunity to true-up or correct reports annually with Q4 reporting. Distributors may work with retailers to help connect them with their fuel importers or position holders to comply with the reporting requirements under book and claim. 

Retailers and distributors who opt to comply through book and claim are required to submit a written agreement with a fuel importer or position holder who accepts responsibility for quarterly compliance reporting on behalf of one or more covered entities. A memo of understanding among the parties is sufficient. If the retailer or distributor sells fuel from multiple fuel importers, then they may need to execute multiple agreements. Distributors also need to sign on to written agreements to ensure they are covered as compliant under the book and claim reporting. Written agreements must be executed before the start of the annual compliance period. At a minimum, written agreements must include:

1. An acknowledgement by the parties of who is accepting responsibility for compliance reporting on behalf of one or more other covered entities.
2. A commitment to submit true, accurate and timely compliance reports to BPS, as required by Section 6.E.1 of the administrative rules.
3. A clear understanding of how parties will manage audits and any issues of non-compliance.
4. A contact (including a full name and contact information) for each party who is authorized to respond to compliance and reporting issues.
5. Physical site addresses covered by the agreement where motor vehicle fuels are stored, transferred, or sold.
6. A signature from an individual from each party who is authorized to enter into agreements for their entity.

To protect proprietary business information, covered entities may execute multiple book and claim agreements that are linked together in a sequence or chain, with each subsequent agreement dependent on the terms of the previous one, such that all parties are connected through a common agreement for the fuel importer or position holder to accept responsibility for book and claim compliance reporting on behalf of all other parties. BPS interprets the administrative rules to allow for agreements in a sequence or chain to remain segregated to protect proprietary information. Therefore, the fuel importer or position holder is not required to sign each agreement in the chain, nor do the covered entities have to disclose all physical site addresses covered by the agreement to the fuel importer or position holder, so long as those physical sites are disclosed to BPS.

3. Delivered fuel summary. The third compliance option is a hybrid of the first two compliance options. Delivered fuel summary will allow distributors to directly comply with the carbon intensity standard without tracking fuel pathways codes on product transfer documents, quarterly reporting, nor needing a written agreement. This option will also enable covered entities to average the carbon intensity, like book and claim compliance. Delivered Fuel Summary requires distributors to provide retailers with a quarterly summary report of the fuel pathway codes (FPC) associated with each fuel delivery, in lieu of maintaining the FPC on a PTD from each delivery.

Quarterly summary reports must be maintained on site for inspection and must be completed on the same schedule as book and claim reporting – summaries must be available 90 days after the end of the previous calendar quarter: 

• June 30 for Q1; 
• September 30 for Q2; 
• January 10 for Q3 of the prior calendar year; and 
• March 31 for Q4 of the prior calendar year. 

Distributors must provide the location where the summary report will be held when selecting a compliance option. Additionally, all summary reports must be uploaded to the BPS website once annually, by April 30 for the prior calendar year.

Summary reports must include the retail location address, volume of diesel fuel delivered by date and the associated fuel pathway codes used for compliance. BPS will provide a template for the summary reports. There are two options that can be utilized to convey compliance under Delivered Fuel Summary Reporting:

1. CI averaging. The summary report must also include a calculation showing the weighted average of CI values by volume over the quarter.
2. Equivalent volume at compliant CI. The summary report must include a calculation showing that the volume of biofuel that meets the CI standard delivered in the quarter met or exceeded an equivalent volume as required by the standard as set by PCC Chapter 16.60. For example, in 2024, if 1,000 gallons was delivered over the quarter, 15% would need to meet the CI standard, or 150 gallons of fuel with a carbon intensity at or below 40g CO₂e/MJ.

Selecting a compliance option

Distributors will need to select a compliance option by the start of the annual compliance period. BPS will provide notification about selecting compliance options by October 31 of each year. To receive notification, covered entities must be registered with the RFS Program.

Compliance options are selected through a form in the RFS Compliance database. Compliance options may be changed at any time during the compliance period after consulting with BPS. If a covered entity decides to change the compliance option during the compliance period, they are responsible for compliance under the new option for the full compliance period.

Record keeping requirements

PCC Chapter 16.60 and administrative rules requires that an invoice, bill of lading, shipping paper, or other documentation, referred to as “Product Transfer Documents” (PTD) must accompany each fuel delivery in the city of Portland. The administrative rules specify that:

1. PTDs must include the type of renewable fuel, including biodiesel, renewable diesel, ethanol, or any blends of these fuels, and declare the volume percent of such renewable fuel.
2. PTDs must comply with OAR 603-027-0430 (1) (a) which includes identifying the quantity, the name of the product, the name and address of the seller and buyer, and the date and time of the sale.
3. Distributors who support retailers using the product transfer document compliance pathway must also ensure that fuel pathway codes issued by Oregon Clean Fuels Program are also included on a PTD associated with each delivery received by the retailer.

All fuel distributors must keep records of Product Transfer Documents or other source information for each product being sold at the person’s registered place of business for two years to comply with PCC Chapter 16.60 and administrative rules. If it is more efficient to store records in a central location, rather than at the registered place of business, retailers can choose a location for records storage in the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area. Records, excluding PTD, may also be stored electronically. To maintain records in a central location or electronically, retailers must inform BPS when selecting a compliance option.