On Wednesday, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve alleged violations tied to renewable fuel credits under the Clean Air Act's Renewable Fuel Standard program.

Regulatory Settlement Impact

Chevron agreed to pay a civil penalty of just over $1 million. To remediate the violation, it retired over 2 million renewable fuel credits valued at about $3.6 million.

The DOJ said Chevron disclosed in June 2023 that from January 2022 through August 2022, it had invalidly generated over 2.2 million advanced biofuel production credits (Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs).

These credits were on renewable diesel that had previously been used for RIN generation and sold to third parties.

The DOJ framed the settlement as protecting the integrity of the RFS credit market.

It emphasized that RINs may only be generated once on any volume of renewable fuel to prevent double-counting.

The agency also noted Chevron is both a renewable fuel producer and an "obligated ...