EPAct Annual Reporting Webinar

This is a text version of the EPAct Annual Reporting Webinar video.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: All right. We will go ahead and get started. Welcome to the introduction to EPAct Annual Reporting Webinar. This is for the State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program. And thank you for joining us today. My name is Erin Andrews-Sharer, and I'm the NREL program lead for the state and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program.

And we've designed this webinar to help new points of contact understand strategies for the program, compliance, and reporting. The webinar will cover the basics of the State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program, discuss how to earn credits, share best practices and reporting, and introduce the reporting tool platform.

We also encourage that new points of contact watch the past year's annual reporting webinars, which are linked on the EPAct website. Before we dive into the webinars content, I'd like to introduce the key program team who helps support the Department of Energy by managing the State and Alternative Fuel Provider Fleet Program. So with that, let's start with some introductions on the NREL side. I will turn it over to Ted to introduce himself.

TED SEARS: OK, greetings, everybody. My name is Ted Sears. I'm with the National Renewable Energy Lab. I've been involved with the EPAct Fleet Program for almost 18 years. So I know some of you, and always excited to meet some of the new folks, and otherwise supporting Erin and the team. And with that, I'll turn it over to Darlene.

DARLENE STEWART: Hi, I'm Darlene Stewart. I am also supporting the EPAct program, not quite as long as Ted. I work mostly in the background, helping with designing and maintaining the database and user interface for the program. Thank you.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: Thanks, Darling. Abdullah.

ABDULLAH HASHMI: Hello, everyone. My name is Abdullah Hashmi. I'm a research engineer at NREL, and also supporting the state and alternative fuel provider fleet program. Happy to be here. Over to you [AUDIO OUT]

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: All right, let's turn it over to the ICF team. Matt, will you introduce yourself.

MATT BRADELY: Sure. Thanks, Erin. Matt Bradley, supporting DOE and NREL from ICF. I've been supporting the program for a little over a year and a half now, and we help with regulatory compliance issues. And whenever you reach out to the regulatory information line, you'll get one of us and happy to help with any issues that you have. Go ahead Sophia.

SOPHIA NAPOLETANO: Hi, everyone. My name is Sophia Napoletano, also with ICF supporting NREL, and also helping man that regulatory information line. So you can come to Matt and I with any regulatory questions you have about the program.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: All right. And last but not least, Deb.

DEBRA GROSS: Hi, I'm Deb Gross. I actually work for CATI. And I work with the program State Fuel Provider Fleet Project Manager. I have been part of the program for just over 25 years, and I basically maintained the reporting information for all the fleets.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: Awesome. Thanks so much, everyone, for your introductions. I muted myself, which is not helpful. With that, we'll get into the agenda for the day. So we're going to start with some program background, strategies for compliance, and then finish up with a brief demo of the reporting tool and some resources available to covered fleets.

So pretty simple here today. Really just want to make sure that we're giving you an introduction to the program and resources that are helpful as you get started. All right. So with that, we'll dive into the program background.

So the Energy Policy Act, or EPAct, as we refer to it, of 1992, authorized the state and alternative fuel provider fleet program. It's been amended several times, and the latest Amendment was in 2014. A lot of these amendments really have been to expand what types of activities are able to earn credits for fleets through this program.

So the program is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, and requires that state and alternative fuel provider fleets are covered fleets acquire alternative fuel vehicles as a percentage of their annual light duty vehicle acquisitions, or to employ other alternative fuel use methods in lieu of acquiring AFVs. So the primary goal here is to utilize alternative fuel and generate a core market for alternative fuel vehicles.

So there's over 300 fleets that report in the program today. And most fleets comply through standard compliance, which is really what we'll emphasize today here in the webinar. You might be wondering what are the criteria for being a covered fleet.

So first, your fleet must be either a state fleet, which also includes state university's or an alternative fuel provider fleet. So that's defined in detail on our website, but generally includes an entity whose principal business involves producing, storing, refining, processing, transporting, distributing, selling any alternative fuel, or generating and selling electricity.

So then we come to this definition to understand out of those fleets, which fleets are covered. So state and alternative fuel provider fleets are considered a covered fleet if they own, operate or lease, or otherwise control 50 or more nonexcluded light-duty vehicles. And if at least 20 of those vehicles are used primarily within a single MSA and are capable of being centrally fueled.

So we'll get to nonexcluded and excluded vehicles here in just a minute. And I know that this is a lot of content. So I'll break it down into some more simple terms here in the next few slides. So here's an example of decision tree that we've designed for state fleets to determine if they're covered fleets. There's a similar decision tree for alternative fuel provider fleets with slightly different criteria. And again, can find those on our website.

But really to break down this concept of a covered fleet, we'll use this state fleet example. So for example, for state fleets, we'll first ask the question if owner operator control at least 50 light-duty vehicles within the United States. And then when you subtract excluded vehicles, again, which we'll come to here in a minute, of those 50 vehicles, at least 20 primarily used within a single MSA. And are they capable of being centrally fueled?

So the term centrally fueled here applies to both state and alternative fuel provider fleets. It means that a vehicle is fueled at least 75% of the time at a location that's owned, operated, or controlled by the fleet or covered person, or under a contract with the fleet or covered person for refueling purposes. So then we extend that to being capable of being centrally, centrally fueled, which means that a vehicle can be fueled at least 75% of the time at the location that's owned, operated or controlled by the fleet or covered person, et cetera.

So I'll emphasize here that if an entity could own, operate, or control that fueling location, or if they could have a contractual fueling arrangement, then its light-duty vehicles are capable of being centrally fueled. So that might feel like a lot to digest. If you have any further questions about criteria here on whether or not you are a covered fleet at this point in time, we're always happy to walk through it and further detail.

And because of the number thresholds here with the 50 light-duty vehicles owned and operated within the United States and 20 in that central location, it is possible that a fleet may be covered for several years. And then if their fleet number decreased significantly, they may become noncovered for a series of years. So we really want to make sure that this is something that folks are paying attention to and asking questions about if they have them to make sure that you're reporting when required. But if you're no longer a covered fleet, that you're also aware of that.

So once we've determined that your covered fleet, there are two methods for compliance. The first is standard compliance. And again, that's what I'll focus primarily on today. And then there's also alternative compliance. Because most fleets choose to comply via standard compliance-- that's our emphasis for this introductory session here.

So for standard compliance on an annual basis, a certain percentage of non-excluded light-duty vehicles must be alternative fuel vehicles. For state fleets, that 75%. For alternative fuel provider fleets, that's 90%. And as we've mentioned a couple of times there, there is this concept of excluded vehicles. So as we're focusing on that threshold for light-duty vehicle acquisitions. That's 75% or 90% of non-excluded vehicles.

So those excluded vehicles would include emergency motor vehicles, law enforcement, nonroad, take-home vehicles, research and development vehicles, things like that. Again, this is defined on our website if you're interested in looking into more details about excluded vehicles. But these excluded vehicles must be excluded for the entire time that they're in the fleet.

So anything that's not an excluded vehicle, again, comes into this count towards the acquisition requirements. And we'll go into some more detail on how to calculate that later in the webinar with some examples. So in standard compliance, there are a couple of primary ways to meet your fleets requirements. And the first is simply acquiring light-duty vehicle, alternative fuel vehicles, or converting those vehicles to alternative fuel vehicles. So again, we'll talk in more detail about what some of those examples are. But that's the primary method for compliance.

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles do earn credit. But because this program is focused on light-duty vehicle acquisition, the medium- and heavy-duty alternative fuel vehicles that you acquire, those credits only apply once you've met your light-duty vehicle requirement. So once you meet those credits are then banked and you can apply them for use in future years.

So there's also some other credit earning activities, such as acquiring creditable non-AFV vehicles. For example, a hybrid electric vehicle would fall under this category in which you earn half a credit for acquiring a hybrid electric vehicle. So there's a handful of strategies within that, too, for vehicles that you can get partial credit for. You also can invest in alternative fuel infrastructure, alternative fuel nonroad equipment or emerging technology vehicles.

And then finally, a method that a lot of fleets utilize is purchasing biodiesel for use in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. You can only earn up to 50% of your requirement for most fleets for that method. And you also cannot bank these credits, but these are still credits that are available for that year of reporting.

All right. So what is an alternative fuel vehicle? And how is that defined by the program? An alternative fuel vehicle is any dedicated or dual-fueled vehicle-- so a vehicle that operates solely on alternative fuel, or can operate on at least one alternative fuel. So those alternative fuels are listed here on the slide. And just want to talk through a couple of examples and what we see through program compliance.

So in the dedicated vehicle space, one example here of alternative fuel vehicle that folks often get credit for is a battery electric vehicle, or perhaps a CNG vehicle. And then in the dual field space, a good example here is an E85 flex fuel vehicle. So again, there are some vehicles that are not alternative fuel vehicles by this definition but still earn credit. So hybrid electric vehicles or neighborhood electric vehicles each earn partial credit for acquisition under the program.

So with that broad perspective of program compliance, I want to show here a snapshot some trends to better understand how fleets have historically met compliance. As you can see, E85 flex fuel vehicles, that's the ethanol yellow line on the screen, have been, and continue to be, a popular method to earn credit towards acquisition requirements.

However, with the lower availability of these vehicles can see that trend line has come down in recent years. We also can see that there has been an increase in purchasing and acquisition of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. The hybrid electric vehicle is the blue line there. And then a fairly consistent acquisition of CNG vehicles over the years as well. So there's other types of vehicles and fuels that are reported through the program, but they're a little bit less popular. So not shown here on the screen.

So here's a snapshot more broadly of the methods to earn credits towards compliance and how that has evolved over the past 10 years or so. You can see a combination of credits for AFVs, hybrid electric vehicles, neighborhood electric vehicles. That's our blue chunk in the bar chart here. You can see credits for biodiesel usage. You can see credits for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the gray investments is this real thin blue color.

And so that just helps to give a picture of what are the strategies in which fleets are leveraging to earn credits towards their acquisition requirement every year. The one thing I'll highlight here that we'll talk about more later as well is applied credits. That's the green portion of the bar chart here. So applied credits refers to using credits that you may have banked over the years.

So if you exceed your acquisition requirement in one year, those remaining credits are banked into your account for future use. And you can also trade credits with other fleets in order to acquire more credits, and then you can apply those credits to your requirement in a year in which perhaps you have not met your acquisition requirement and need to have some more credits in order to meet compliance.

So, as I mentioned, there is an alternative method to comply with the program called alternative compliance. Less than 10 fleets comply via alternative compliance typically each year. And so we'll just give a brief overview. If you have further questions or if you're interested in learning more about alternative compliance, there's plenty of information on our website. But we're also here to talk through that with you and think about if this is a good strategy for your fleet.

So alternative compliance may be a good option for fleets that have a significant number of medium or heavy duty vehicles that are capable of using biodiesel in excess of that 50% cap that's associated with standard compliance, or if the fleet has a lot of vehicles that are capable of using other alternative fuels. Additionally, if you wish to combine hybrid electric vehicle use and alternative fuel use, this might be a good method for your fleet, or if your fleet is subject to state or local requirements, calling for use of these alternative fuels. This also might be a good strategy.

So essentially, how alternative compliance works is fleets will submit a plan detailing what their compliance strategy will look like over the next year. That plan is approved by this team. And then at the end of the model year in which they're reporting for, the fleet will submit a similar report that mimics that plan, that demonstrates how the fleet met compliance through those strategies. So again, if you're interested in learning more about alternative compliance, please feel free to follow up and touch base with us about that.

So I want to talk quickly about annual reporting. Because this is a primary component of the program, each year, fleets are required to submit an annual report to demonstrate how they've met their acquisition requirements. There's two primary methods to submit a report. You can report online, which is the method that we highly recommend. It's a fairly user-friendly tool in which you can go through and make sure you're capturing all of the components that might earn credits and reporting the information accordingly.

You also can report via spreadsheet. And that spreadsheet is linked online. You need to use our template for the spreadsheet, and then you can email that in as well to the email listed here. You might be wondering, when you should plan to submit your annual report? And the answer is now. We are in the middle of reporting season, and this is part of the reason why we wanted to have this webinar to help folks get a handle on what's required, that sort of thing.

We sent out one reminder about filing annual reports, and you should expect to see more from us as we get closer to the end of reporting season. But reporting season opens every year, September 1, and it closes December 31, following the end of a model year. So on December 31 of this year, you'll need to have submitted your model year 2025 report, for example.

I do want to mention that when you log in right now, you should be able to see two different reports that are accessible that you can edit and start contributing to. One will be for the previous model year-- so that model year 2025 report, and one will be for the upcoming model year. So one thing that I'll stop and explain here a little bit, the terminology model year is something that is in this sense specific to our program. So the program model year starts on September 1 every year and runs through the end of August the following year.

So for example, model year 2026 started September 1 of this year, and we'll run through the end of August next year. And then the model year 2026 report will be due December 31 of 2026. So that's how the cycle of model year reporting goes. But that helps explain also why you might see an additional report.

So right now, if I'm a fleet that needs to comply with this program, I should be working on my model year 2025 annual report. However, I could also start to add vehicles that I'm acquiring in this month or in the next month to the model year 2026 report, because it's already open and I can start entering in that information. I can't submit it until September of next year, but that report is open for you to be able to start working in.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Sophia, ICF, to talk through in more detail some of the strategies for compliance.

SOPHIA NAPOLETANO: Thanks, Erin. You can just go to the next slide. So the first thing that fleets need to do to start with the reporting process is to determine the AFV acquisition requirement. This is essentially the credit requirement that your fleet will need to fulfill to be in compliance with the program. So a fleet's alternative fuel vehicle acquisition requirement is based on the number of nonexcluded light-duty vehicles that the fleet acquires during the model year.

Just to set some definitions for the purposes of this program, a light-duty vehicle is considered a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating under 8,500, pounds. And like Erin mentioned, a model year runs from September 31 of the previous year to August 31 of the current year. So model year 2025 started in September 1, 2024 and finished August 31, 2025.

So essentially, to determine your AFV acquisition requirement, each fleet needs to input the total number of nonexcluded light-duty vehicles that they've acquired during the model year. So this includes ice vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles-- so gasoline, diesel, and any alternative fuel vehicle. If you input that into the reporting tool it will automatically calculate what your AFV acquisition requirement is.

I do just want to note that we say nonexcluded light-duty vehicles. Like Erin mentioned, there are some vehicles that are excluded from this initial light-duty vehicle count. Common examples we see of this are law enforcement vehicles, take-home vehicles, and emergency response vehicles. So you'll exclude those, but you'll put the rest of your light-duty vehicle acquisitions into the reporting tool, and it will spit out your AFV acquisition requirement.

So for state fleets, your AFV acquisition requirement will be 75% of your LDV acquisitions. And for alternative fuel provider fleets, your requirement will be 90% of your light-duty vehicle acquisitions. So, for example, if you're an electric utility, you're considered an alternative fuel provider under the program. If you acquire 10 nonexcluded light-duty vehicles, then your AFV acquisition requirement will be 9 credits. And once you've calculated your AFV acquisition requirement, you're going to want to move to the next step, which is planning how you will actually earn credits to fulfill this requirement.

So it is best practice to determine how your fleet will determine how it will earn credits before you actually move on to procuring vehicles. So first, you might want to identify any opportunities that you have to purchase alternative fuel vehicles for your fleet if they fit your fleet's mission requirements. So here, you might want to consider flex fuel vehicles, CNG vehicles, or battery electric vehicles.

But there are also some other creditable vehicles that you can acquire, for example, a hybrid electric vehicle. While not considered an alternative fuel vehicle under the program, you can still earn half a credit for it. You can also earn a quarter of a credit for acquiring neighborhood electric vehicles. A neighborhood electric vehicle, under the program, is an electric vehicle with a top attainable speed of more than 20 miles per hour, but no more than 25. So one of the most common examples we see for this is an electric golf cart.

But since this is considered a nonroad, vehicle it is an excluded vehicle, doesn't raise your credit requirement, but you can earn credit for the acquisition of them. Something else you might want to consider is whether your fleet has any medium- or heavy-duty vehicles that you could purchase biodiesel for. For this activity, you can earn up to 50% of your credit requirement.

You can also invest in some alternative fuel qualifying investments. So the most common ones we see are alternative fuel infrastructure and alternative fuel nonroad equipment investments. For alternative fuel infrastructure, this can be something like a CNG dispenser or an electric vehicle charger. An investment of $25,000 is equal to 1 credit under the program. And this infrastructure can be for public or private use.

For nonroad equipment-- Just to define nonroad equipment here, it's mobile or self-propelled nonroad equipment that operates on alternative fuel. So some common examples we see are construction equipment, farm equipment, but it does need to be self-propelled and fueled with alternative fuels. And similar to the infrastructure, an investment of $25,000 in nonroad equipment earns one credit for the fleet.

For something like an electric golf cart, I do want to note this because this can be a tricky situation. But an electric golf cart, depending on the top attainable speed, can either be considered nonroad equipment or a neighborhood electric vehicle. If it's top attainable, speed is in between 20 and 25, then it would be considered a neighborhood electric vehicle and earn a quarter of a credit. But if it's outside of that range, then it would be considered nonroad equipment. However can still report it.

And then a less common investment activity we see is investments in pre-production emerging technology vehicles. Again, we don't see this very often, but you can earn credit for it. You might also want to consider if there are any excluded vehicles that your fleet acquires-- that are hybrid electric vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles. Again, these don't need to be included in your initial LDV count so they don't raise your credit requirement, but you can earn credit for the acquisition of them if acquired as alternative fuel vehicles.

You can go to the next slide. Yeah, thank you. Another important aspect to consider when preparing for procurement is rightsizing your fleet when possible. So something to look at is the utilization of your vehicles. You want to make sure that you're not underutilizing vehicles. It's possible that you don't need to be acquiring as many vehicles as you are. And again, the fewer light-duty vehicles that you acquire, the lower your AFV acquisition requirement will be.

So you just want to make sure that you're actually purchasing the correct amount of vehicles for your fleet. You also want to make sure that it might be helpful to look at whether some light duty vehicle purchases could be replaced by a neighborhood electric vehicle. Again, neighborhood electric vehicles wouldn't be considered in your initial light-duty vehicle count, but you can earn credit for the acquisition of them. You also might want to consider something like a motor pool or a shared vehicle use system to reduce the amount of underutilized vehicles in your fleet. Something like a shared vehicle program can help rightsize your fleet.

So once you've identified your strategy to achieve your AFV acquisition requirement, it's really important to coordinate with your organization's fleet people ahead of time just to make sure that everyone is involved in the process and on the same page. This helps alleviate a lot of headaches that can happen during reporting season, and just make sure everything is set in advance.

So we know that some points of contact for this program are not in charge of fleet operations, or maybe some organizations are dealing with some limitations on the types of vehicles they can acquire, which is why it's important to engage with the people that are in control of procurement to make sure that you're all on the same page.

So for state fleets, we know that often fleets have to procure vehicles from a state contract. It can be really helpful to engage with your contract and procurement officials to make sure that alternative fuel vehicles are available for purchase. This sometimes can require getting buy in from the top if needed, but again, it's just very helpful to make sure that you're reaching out to your organization's fleet people.

Another thing to think about is establishing uniform communication and documentation standards at each step of the procurement process. This again, can just make reporting season a lot easier when you're actually doing data entry. So one thing you might want to consider is checking if your organization has any fleet management software, especially if you're not directly involved in fleet operations. It's possible that a lot of this data is easily accessible already.

If not, then you might want to make sure that you're keeping good track of the vehicles that you're purchasing, including things like the make, the model, the VIN, and the acquisition date. Again, this just makes inputting data into the annual report a lot easier, and a smoother process. So it's helpful to consider what level of control you have to influence reporting methods across all entities. And if you can establish standard processes, this can make reporting a lot easier. Or if you don't have that much influence, it's worth considering reaching out to the people that do.

So once you've actually finished planning how you're going to achieve compliance and have started acquiring vehicles, it's time to move on to the actual annual report, which again, we'll get into a little bit later, but it is considered best practice to enter vehicles as you go throughout the year, or just make sure that you're keeping good documentation of the vehicles that you purchase.

So, like Erin mentioned, you can actually access your annual report as soon as the model year begins. You can't submit it until the model year is over. But if you wanted to every time you acquire a vehicle or a batch of vehicles, you could just upload those directly into the reporting tool and alleviate some of the administrative lift that comes later on. Again, just want to make sure that you're inputting these into the correct model year report, because two will be open at the same time.

Additionally, the reporting season opened September 1. So it is helpful to report earlier instead of December 31, which is the deadline. We know things can get busy around the holidays, so it can definitely be helpful to make sure that you have these submitted in advance.

MATT BRADELY: Great. Thanks, Sophia. I'm going to talk about what happens if a fleet falls short of its annual AFV acquisition requirement. There are several options available to fleets in such situations. We also recommend that you reach out to us at the regulatory information line for help. If you have any questions on these methods, you can see our contact information is listed there on the screen. Feel free to email or call, and we will get back to you.

The first option that a fleet has in this situation is the ability to apply banked credits that they have earned in prior model years. You can see your balance of banked credits in the online reporting tool. Fleets can earn bank credits by over complying program requirements, whether that's acquiring AFVs in excess of their yearly requirement, acquiring exempt or medium duty, and heavy duty AFVs, or through any other credit earning activity other than using biodiesel. Just note that biodiesel credits cannot be banked.

You can also acquire credits from other fleets. The program's website lists fleets that have excess credits that are willing to trade or sell, along with the contact information for each fleet, and a proof of credit transfer form that is required to be filled out to complete the transfer. That then gets sent into the team and the credit card gets processed.

As a last resort, fleets may apply for exemptions due to a lack of alternative fuel vehicles, available alternative fuel vehicles, or lack of available alternative fuels, or unreasonable financial hardships. Please note that exemption requests can only be submitted after a fleet submits its annual report, and they are due no later than January 31, after the end of the model year.

Next up, we talk about creditable activities under the program. This is a lot, so we'll go through this as quickly as we possibly can. So these are a list of all the creditable activities, all the ways to earn credit under the program. As discussed, the primary way for fleets to earn credits is to acquire light-duty alternative fuel vehicles and nonalternative alternative fuel vehicle light-duty electric vehicles, like hybrid vehicles, which as we mentioned, earn one half of a credit, and neighborhood electric vehicles, which earn one quarter of a credit.

In addition to these primary credit earning activities, fleets can satisfy their AFV requirements by acquiring medium- and heavy-duty alternative fuel vehicles. But again, note that these credits can only be applied after the fleet has already met its light duty vehicle requirement. Similarly, fleets can also get a half credit for acquiring nonalternative fuel vehicle medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles like hybrids. But again, those credits can only be earned after a fleet has satisfied its initial requirement through other credit earning activities.

Fleets can also earn AFV credits through creditable investments, like purchasing alternative fuel infrastructure, procuring alternative fuel nonroad equipment, and/or investing in an alternative fuel emerging technology. Alternative fuel infrastructure is defined as fueling stations for alternative fuel vehicles. Some examples would be gaseous fuel infrastructure like an E85 or LPG propane station, or electric vehicle charging stations.

Fleets can earn one credit for every $25,000 invested in stations, for up to 10 credits maximum if the stations are publicly accessible, and 5 credits maximum if the stations are private for fleet use. Alternative fuel nonroad equipment includes equipment like forklifts, riding mowers, and more, and fleets can earn one credit for every $25,000 invested, up to a five credit maximum.

Lastly, fleets can earn AFV credits for investing in pre-production or pre-commercially available versions of certain types of alternative fuel vehicles. This is a method we don't see very often, but it is available to fleets and they can earn up to two AFV credits for the first $50,000 invested and one AFV credit for each additional $25,000 invested, up to a maximum of five credits.

Lastly, fleets can also earn credits by acquiring any aftermarket converted vehicles or by converting a vehicle to operate on an alternative fuel within four months after the fleet takes control of the vehicle. In each of these cases, fleets can earn one credit. And finally, fleets can earn credit, as we mentioned, by utilizing biodiesel. That biodiesel does have to be in blends of 20% biodiesel, or B20, or greater for use only in fleets medium- or heavy-duty vehicles, so greater than 8,500 pounds GVWR.

And for every 450 gallons of biodiesel fuel B100 used in blends of at least 20% or greater, the fleet earns one biodiesel fuel use credit, which is counted as one AFV acquisition. The maximum is half of your required credits per year. Thanks.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: All right. We know that was a lot of information, but I think it's really helpful to just hear it talked about in a couple of different formats and start to think about what are the best strategies for your fleet to earn credits towards your acquisition requirement. So again, there's a lot of information out there. What I'm going to do in this next section is walk through both the reporting tool, but also some resources that are out there that do a deep dive into each of these topics that we've covered, at a high level.

So for example, there's a handful of guidance documents on our website. So if you have more questions about what it means to use biodiesel fuel use credits, there's a whole guidance document that goes into even more detail about what Matt was talking about, but with some examples and things like that about biodiesel fuel use credits.

So high-level overview of all of the guidance documents that we have currently on the website. We have a guidance document that just helps you navigate the compliance reporting tool. We have a series of standard compliance guidance documents, anything from all of these credible activities that we've talked about-- submitting an annual report, exemption requests, things like that. And then there's the primary standard compliance document that talks big picture about the program in general.

Similarly, there's the alternative compliance guidance documents as well. A similar structure, there's the overall guidance and then some additional example reports and reporting guidance as well. So please use these guidance documents. They're there to help you. And hopefully, they have useful information in there for you.

So again, one guidance document that I want to highlight specifically for those of you who might be new to the program, is this Navigating the Compliance Reporting Tool guidance document. So this guidance document will talk you through how to log into the tool, how to manage your fleet point of contact and account information, how to potentially add new fleets to your account. If you're a person who reports for multiple fleets might need to add multiple fleets to that account. How to report for multiple fleets, and how to view any credit trades that might be associated with your account.

So with that, I will turn it over to a screen share of the reporting tool. But just want to stop on this slide quickly to say this is what the login screen point of access looks like for the reporting tool. If you have forgotten your password, you can click on that link. If you're a new point of contact for a fleet and you need to get access into the system, you can request new fleet access.

One thing that I will say here is that we only allow one point of contact per fleet to have access to the reporting tool. And this is just in order to help streamline our communication, make sure that we have one representative who's responsible for being in the tool and submitting the report. So if you have any questions about that or are struggling to get access again, please reach out.

All right. I'm going to share another screen here. And you all can see that, right? OK. So did we get the other screen? Maybe not. Here we go. Can I get a thumbs up so that we can-- what? Technology here. All right. How about now? Can we see the other screen? OK, great. Fabulous. It kept going in and out of view for me.

So this is our EPAct website. So I will start by just orienting on some of the resources that I talked about, and then we'll go ahead and log into the tool and I'll show you what that looks like as well. But first, landing page here, you've got some quick links that are helpful, a link to last year's annual reporting webinar that does a deep dive as how to fill out an annual report, that sort of thing, and a quick link to the FAQs as well. But I'll walk through some of these things here for you.

So we have the Requirements tab. The one thing that I'd like to really point out on this Requirements tab, well, a couple things. First, if you're looking for those decision trees on whether or not you're covered fleet, that is something you can find under this covered fleet section. There's some key terms and definitions which are always helpful. If you're looking for the actual statutes and regulations that define this program, you can find those.

And then the FAQs are what I really want to highlight here as well, because this is a very useful resource. So a lot of different questions with the respective answers. A lot of different topics here that you can see. So I know Sophia had mentioned something about golf carts.

If, for example, have a question about an electric golf cart, you can search it and it will come up with a related question, and you can see the answer that we have to that question. So if there's any question that you have that maybe you're searching for, but you can't find in here, again, reach out to the regulatory information line and we can help you with some of those more nuanced questions as well.

And then we can move on to the Compliance page. So this is where you'll find your guidance documents that I was talking about. So all of the guidance documents are linked here. You have the standard compliance ones, the alternative compliance ones. If you're looking to complete a credit transfer the credit transfer form is also located here. So that's something that might be useful for you.

All right. So then I'm going to go ahead and log in to the reporting tool and show you what that looks like. I think the best way to get there is to just click on this reporting button up at the top, and you can log in to the reporting tool in this manner. So again, I'll just highlight if you're needing new access as a new POC, this is where you could request new fleet access. If you forgot your password, you can always change it.

And then actually down here is the spreadsheet that if you're not interested in using the reporting tool that I'll show you here briefly, you can download the spreadsheet and use it for your annual report. So we'll go ahead and log in. I am a busy fleet manager, and I have a handful of test fleets here that I report for. But we're just going to show you one of them for context.

So here's a test fleet-- that's a state fleet. And you've got the various different tabs over here. We'll walk through them. Here's a quick snapshot summary. You can see that I have one banked credit for this fleet. Here's the address that the fleet is primarily located at. And my contact information. Again, there's some quick links here to help you get to various things, such as changing the fleet contact information in your reports and things like that. But we're going to navigate down on this side over here.

So looking first at the annual reporting tab, this is a method in which if you are complying via alternative compliance, you can use this tab to submit some of the items that you need to submit update, your inventory of vehicles, and things like that. But for those of us who are in the standard compliance method, you can click on this button here and see the available reports.

So as Sophia was mentioning, there are two reports available for me to be editing at this moment. There's the one for this past year, that's due on December 31. That's the model year 2025 report. And then there's the one for next year, that if I want to get ahead of the game and I'm already acquiring vehicles for this model year, I can start to enter them in there.

I'll give you just a quick snapshot of what this tool looks like, but encourage you to go watch the already recorded annual reporting webinar from last year that walks through each of these steps of the report, and how to fill out the information correctly and submit it.

So we'll go back here and then go to the View Reports tab. This is a snapshot of all reports that have been previously submitted under this fleet. So again, this is a test fleet. We haven't filled out reports for every year. But you can see that. Let's look at model year 2023. This is just a quick snapshot of the creditable activities from that year. You can also find a PDF that you can download if you're trying to figure out in an easy manner what it is that you did in previous years. This is a good way to look into that.

And then the Credit Trades section will show any credit trades that you have completed. This fleet has not completed any credit trades, so it's not showing anything, but that would pop up here if it did. And then your fleet contact information. Again, this is just basic information about you and the fleet. And you can go ahead and edit anything if you would like to. And then if you're interested in having your credit balance, be public-- so if you're interested in trading your credits with any other fleets, you can make that note here as well.

Additionally, there's account information for you as the point of contact. One thing that I will note here is that we want to make sure that we're tracking records of all of the different points of contact who are in the system, because sometimes they change back and forth and it's helpful to have that information.

So if you are a point of contact and maybe you are no longer going to be the point of contact in the future, you should leave your contact information in here, and then have the new point of contract request access to the fleet. We'll get them assigned to the fleet, and that way they can have their own login screen and that sort of thing.

All right. So that's a quick tour of the tool. Again, encourage you to just get into the tool, explore the different tabs, explore the information in there. If you have any questions, please let us. All right. With that, we'll go back to our presentation. We did our reporting tool walkthrough. Just want to pause here.

Again, we talked about a lot of resources already. Just want to highlight again. We have the guidance documents, regulations, there's a reporting schedule that you can look at online. The frequently asked questions. So please, please, please utilize these resources. They're here for you, and all available on our website. All right. With that, I'll turn it back to Matt.

MATT BRADELY: Thanks, Erin. Lastly, we're going to cover some frequently asked questions that we get from the program in lieu of a Q&A session, which we would usually do on one of these webinars. Here are some commonly asked questions from the regulatory information line. May a fleet earn a credit for a hybrid or a plug-in-hybrid vehicle? The answer to that is yes. Hybrid electric vehicles are eligible for half a credit.

And plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles are eligible for a full credit, provided that they meet the US Environmental Protection Agency's, urban and highway test cycles on electricity alone, or have an engine capable of operating on a liquid or gaseous alternative fuel, then they do qualify as alternative fuel vehicles. That's a lot to take in. Important to note that all but two of the public PHEVs on the road today do meet this criteria, and those two models that don't meet the criteria are very unlikely to be used by a fleet.

Next question. How do I determine if a vehicle is flex-fuel capable? Sometimes this can be tough to determine. One way to do it would be to check with your fleet management team. Another way would be to look at the receipt from the dealership. You can also check some additional resources outside of the program like fueleconomy.gov or the ATC Vehicle Search. You can check the vehicle's manual. Sometimes the fuel cap around that area will have it listed. Or you may also review the fuel information on the Monroney label, which is the window sticker that is required to come with all new vehicles.

And next question. Does an alternative fueled-ATV earn credit under the program. The answer to that is yes. ATVs are considered nonroad vehicles under the program, and as such, you do not need to count them towards your LDB requirement. However, if fleet does acquire ATV or RTV or anything like that. The UTV that is capable of running on an alternative fuel, like electricity or propane, then the acquisition of that vehicle can earn the fleet a credit.

And lastly, is it required that the fleet use alternative fuel in the vehicle to earn credit for that alternative fuel vehicle. The alternative fuel providers that are covered by the program do need to use alternative fuels when available. They do need to use only alternative fuel in their AFVs, except when the vehicles are operating in areas where the appropriate alternative fuel is not available.

Alternative fuel providers should keep records of their alternative fuel use for at least three years. And also, important to note that state fleets are not subject to this provision, state fleets are not required to utilize alternative fuels in their alternative fuel vehicles. And lastly, just will say again, when all else fails, reach out to us at the regulatory information line. If you have any questions, we're there to help. And yeah, any questions on regulatory information or how to comply with the program, please reach out. Thanks.

ERIN ANDREWS-SHARER: All right. I'm sharing contact information here. The first one is for Deb, who manages reporting support for fleets. If they're having troubles entering in information into the report, that sort of thing, Deb is a great contact there. And then again, as Matt and Sophia have mentioned, the regulatory information line really helps with questions about compliance and the nitty gritty of all these things that we've talked about today, whether or not a certain vehicle might be eligible for credit or a certain activity, that sort of thing.

So with that, thank you so much for watching this webinar. We hope that it's been insightful for you all. And again, please reach out should there be any other questions.