Clean Energy Fuels Q1 2026 Earnings Results & Report

Clean Energy Fuels EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.01
• Consensus EPS: -$0.02
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.01
• EPS Beat Rate: 8 of last 8 quarters

Clean Energy Fuels Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $117.56 million
• Expected Revenue: $102.62 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$14.94 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +13.30%

Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) provides transportation fuel and fueling infrastructure for fleets that operate on natural gas, with a focus on renewable natural gas (RNG). The company serves public and private fleets in sectors such as refuse collection, public transit, trucking, airports, utilities and other commercial transportation markets.

Clean Energy develops, owns and operates compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas fueling stations, and provides station construction, operation, maintenance and fuel delivery services. Through its Redeem brand, the company supplies RNG produced from organic waste sources, including landfills, livestock operations and wastewater treatment facilities. It also offers conventional natural gas fuel and related fleet fueling solutions.

Founded in 1997, Clean Energy Fuels serves customers primarily in the United States and Canada through a network of natural gas fueling stations and customer-owned facilities. The company is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, and has been led by co-founder Andrew J. Littlefair, who serves as president and chief executive officer.

Clean Energy Fuels Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Leadership change: Clay Corbus was named CEO after 19 years at the company and will prioritize growth, stronger execution, and using data/software to improve efficiency across operations and RNG development.
• Neutral Sentiment: Q1 results: Clean Energy delivered 67 million gallons of RNG, reported $117.6 million in revenue, $16.6 million of Adjusted EBITDA and a GAAP net loss of $12 million, with $126 million of cash on the balance sheet plus $46 million at dairy JV partners and a full-year RNG delivery target of 250M+ gallons.
• Positive Sentiment: RNG production and regulatory progress: The company has 8 operating RNG projects and 3 under construction, saw ramp activity at South Fork and East Valley, and secured a CARB pathway for the Del Rio dairy (~CI -300) that materially increases LCFS credit generation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market dynamics and trucking opportunity: A sharp diesel price spike has strengthened the economics for RNG—especially for Class 8 trucks with the Cummins X15N—but adoption remains slower than expected, so the company plans a targeted approach focusing on fleets where RNG provides the clearest cost and emissions advantages.

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello and welcome everyone joining today's Clean Energy Fuels first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. To register to ask a question at any time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please note this call is being recorded. We are standing by should you need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Tom Driscoll, Vice President, Strategic Development and Sustainability. Please go ahead.

[Tom Driscoll, VP of Strategic Development and Sustainability at Clean Energy Fuels]

Thank you, Dana. Earlier this afternoon, Clean Energy released financial results for the first quarter ending March 31st, 2026. If you did not receive the release, it is available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website, where the call is also being webcast. There will be a replay available on the website for 30 days. Before we begin, we'd like to remind you that some of the information contained in the news release and on this conference call contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Such forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and the company's actual results could differ materially from those contained in such statements. Several factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in detail in the Risk Factors section of Clean Energy's Form 10-Q filed today.

[Tom Driscoll, VP of Strategic Development and Sustainability at Clean Energy Fuels]

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements or supply new information regarding the circumstances after the date of this release. The company's non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA will be reviewed on this call and excludes certain expenses that the company's management does not believe are indicative of the company's core business operating results. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to GAAP results. The directly comparable GAAP information, reasons why management uses non-GAAP information, a definition of non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA, and a reconciliation between these non-GAAP and GAAP figures is provided in the Company's press release, which has been furnished to the SEC on Form 8-K today.

[Tom Driscoll, VP of Strategic Development and Sustainability at Clean Energy Fuels]

With that, I will turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Clay Corbus.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

All right. Thank you, Tom. I want to start by saying that I'm honored to be named CEO of Clean Energy. I've been part of this company for 19 years and have been involved in every major strategic chapter of our evolution, from our days building out the fueling network to our initial investments in RNG in 2008 to the integrated platform we operate today. I have a huge amount of confidence in our team and the foundation we've built, and I'm very excited about the opportunity ahead of us. Now, as CEO, I plan to focus on growth, strengthen execution and operating discipline, and fully leverage the assets, infrastructure, and people we have in place. We have a strong balance sheet, recurring cash flow, and a very capable team.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

I also see opportunity to be more technology forward, using data and software to improve efficiency across operations, corporate functions, RNG, and how we identify new customers and serve existing customers. All of this supports the same objective: deliver value for our customers and stakeholders. At its core, I believe deeply in this business and our product. RNG is domestically produced, lowers fuel costs, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and uses existing infrastructure. Those fundamentals have always mattered, but they are especially relevant today. Beginning in early March, the conflict with Iran caused a sharp rise in crude oil prices, which quickly flowed through to diesel across the U.S. Diesel prices increased by roughly $1.50-$2 per gal or more, a 50% increase almost overnight.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Fuel is a meaningful component of cost per mile, and this level of volatility strains fleets, carriers, and shippers and ultimately leads to higher costs for consumers. This environment reinforces why Clean Energy exists. Compared to diesel, natural gas is cheaper, cleaner, domestic, and less exposed to geopolitical events abroad. As you've heard many times before, nearly 100% of the fuel delivered through our stations today is renewable natural gas, which captures all the benefits I just mentioned and helps our customers advance their sustainability goals. Now, turning to the quarter, we delivered 67 million gal of RNG. We generated $16.6 million of adjusted EBITDA, and we ended the quarter with $126 million of cash on the balance sheet. In our downstream business, performance across core markets remained steady.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Our transit and refuse sectors continue to be consistent contributors, supported by long-standing customer relationships and the reliability of RNG. We also see underappreciated growth potential in these segments. Over the past five years, battery, electric, and hydrogen solutions have proven costly and challenging to deploy in many locations. As those realities become clearer for transit and refuse fleets, RNG offers a practical, cleaner, and lower cost alternative to diesel, and many of these fleets already have first-hand experience with RNG. In trucking, the recent diesel price hikes and volatility have brought total cost of ownership back into focus. Heavy-duty trucking remains our largest growth opportunity. Class 8 trucks with the Cummins X15N engine allow fleets to capture RNG's economic and environmental benefits without sacrificing range or performance. The technology works, the infrastructure is in place, the fuel is available today, and it is cheap and less volatile.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Quite simply, the case for switching from diesel to RNG has never been stronger. At the same time, to be honest, adoption of the X15N has been slower than we originally expected. Diesel is the incumbent fuel for the vast majority of fleets. In the last two years, the sector's faced challenging freight fundamentals, federal and state regulatory uncertainty, particularly in California, and frankly, ESG whiplash as companies balance long-term sustainability goals with fluid policies and near-term stakeholder expectations. Even though RNG delivers a lower total cost of ownership, natural gas tractors still carry a higher upfront cost than diesel. In that environment, many fleets have chosen to delay change and stick with the status quo. Our strategy is to be targeted, focusing on applications and fleets where RNG delivers the clearest economic and low carbon advantages.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

In our upstream RNG production business, we now have eight projects operating and three under construction. The first quarter reflected continued ramp-up at our South Fork project in Texas and our East Valley project in Idaho. The first quarter also had extreme winter weather, which impacted production, particularly in the upper Midwest. We were able to get our projects back on track and anticipate production and financial results to improve as the year progresses. I'd also like to highlight a positive regulatory milestone. In March, CARB approved the pathway for our Del Rio Dairy project in Texas with a carbon intensity of approximately -300. We also continue to await an upgraded GREET model from the Department of Energy for determining 45Z credit values, which is expected to better reflect the negative carbon intensity of dairy RNG.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

As we scale the RNG production business, projects have taken longer to develop and ramp up than initially expected, and some have faced operational challenges. We've responded by taking a more hands-on approach to operations, strengthening internal oversight, and replacing vendors where performance fell short. These improvements and transitions take time, but we are making progress. We remain focused on improving performance at our operating sites and executing projects that are under construction. It remains true that Clean Energy is an advantaged owner of dairy RNG production. Customer demand for low CI RNG remains strong, particularly in California, where we have the largest RNG station network. Before concluding, I do want to take a moment to recognize Andrew Littlefair. Andrew founded this company. He led it for three decades and built Clean Energy into the platform that it is today.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

I've had the privilege of working alongside Andrew and learning from him. We are fortunate that he remains actively involved by continuing his work on policy matters in Washington and serving on our board. On behalf of the entire company, I want to thank him for his contributions and continued commitment to Clean Energy. With that, I'll hand the call to our CFO, Bob Vreeland, to walk through the financials.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Thank you, Clay, and good afternoon to everyone. Overall, our financial performance was in line with our expectations with normal variations within our integrated businesses. For example, while extreme cold weather impacted upstream RNG production, we were able to monetize a larger than expected amount of RIN and LCFS credits from our East Valley dairy in Idaho, which was placed into service in March. Increased RNG volumes delivered by our fuel distribution business drove higher RIN revenues, and we were able to optimize our gas costs in this volatile commodities market. To a lesser degree in the quarter, but still ongoing today, we enjoyed the dynamics of higher retail fuel prices while our natural gas commodity costs did not increase proportionally at the same level of oil and diesel prices.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

In fact, despite increases in our natural gas costs and retail prices, we maintained a large discount on our fuel price compared to diesel. One of the effects we see of elevated commodity and retail prices is higher revenue. Higher fuel volumes, which drive both base fuel sales revenue as well as RIN and LCFS revenues, we reported $117.6 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026 compared to $103.8 million last year. RNG volumes delivered in the first quarter of 2026 were strong. Our normal recurring volumes, we saw higher demand from customers outside our network of stations needing RNG for transportation. We've seen this before, and it's nice to have the supply to accommodate those deliveries.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

We believe we will come off the first quarter RNG volumes by a few million gallons or so as we look forward, remain confident in achieving our annual guidance of delivering 250 million gal or more given the first quarter of RNG for the year. GAAP net loss was $12 million for the first quarter of 2026. Certainly, there was a return in 2026 to more normal operations versus a year ago in the first quarter, where we reported a GAAP net loss of $135 million, which included a couple large non-cash charges totaling $115 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $16.6 million in the first quarter of 2026 compares to $17.1 million of adjusted EBITDA a year ago.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

In addition to the normal variations I mentioned previously for the first quarter of 2026, we also saw lower, albeit still very adequate, base fuel margins, which we anticipated in our outlook for 2026. Also anticipated in our 2026 outlook, we lowered SG&A expenses in the first quarter of 2026. One reporting comment I'll make is a change in where the non-cash Amazon warrant charge is recorded in our financial statements.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

You'll notice in 2026, a portion of the warrant charge is included as a charge against our O&M service revenue, whereas previously 100% of the charge was in our products revenue. There's more detail on the Amazon warrant charge. It's just a different place in the income statement that you're seeing it this year. There's more disclosed in our 10-Q. In addition to the $126 million in cash and investments on our balance sheet, there is another $46 million in cash off balance sheet at our Dairy RNG joint ventures. During the first quarter, we contributed $12 million to our Maas Energy Works JV with another $12 million that was contributed in April. Maas Energy Works continues to make good progress toward completing the three dairy projects under construction. With that, operator, please open the call to questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our first question comes from Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum.

[Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum]

Hi, Clay. Hi, Bob.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Hey, Eric.

[Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum]

Hey, Clay, you touched on it a little bit, just with the X15N. I mean, I know that, you know, now there are two OEMs in the market and prior to Freightliner's entry, pricing was an issue, incremental cost has come down some. And obviously, we've all read the glowing feedback of fleets that have been testing this. I mean, the market conditions, as you've said, you've got, you know, a more difficult environment, but obviously highlights the price benefit. I mean, is this something where I know you're taking a targeted approach? I mean, do you kind of view this as this is just going to make it all the more likely that it's going to be the large fleets rather than, you know, the small kind of one-off adoption stories? You know, how do you view that?

[Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum]

I mean, is this the kind of thing that if it persists, it could be what actually jumpstarts this market? As you've said, you know, although Cummins' view of it hasn't changed in terms of the overall opportunity, it is well behind schedule.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Well, Eric, it's, you know, it's what we spend a lot of time thinking about and focused on. I don't think anybody really thinks that diesel is gonna stay at these prices forever. I do think that the this run-up in diesel has really heightened the awareness of the volatility.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

You know, we were at the ACT conference, the last few days. What a lot of people were talking about is, "Hey, if you just take the last five years and do a regression analysis on what the price of diesel has been, and then you compare that to the price of natural gas, it is just higher overall." When fleets are trying to plan going forward what their fuel costs are gonna be and their total cost of ownership, they're factoring that into those decisions. It certainly helps us because it helps us with the total cost of ownership and the payback period for that incremental cost.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

I would also say that I don't know that it changes the types of fleets we're looking at, whether they're large fleets or small fleets, because even with the large fleets, they're not looking, you know, to be honest, they're not gonna change, you know, 2,000 trucks over overnight. I think what we are seeing is that as we heard from some of the fleets that are transitioning, "Hey, start out with five trucks. Start out with 10 trucks. Let's sort of dip our toe in the water, get our mechanics used to it, get our drivers used to it, get our, you know, get our routes used to it.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

From there, go ahead and, you know, expand it into a larger, you know, larger numbers within the fleet." I think that, you know, that combined with that sort of let's dip our toe in first, combined with the price advantages that we're seeing now in the total cost of ownership will result in, you know, incremental adoption as we go forward. It's not, you know, it's a long sales cycle. It takes a long time to get the trucks ordered. It takes a long time to get them on the road. It's not something that we, you know, people can see high diesel prices today and are gonna order a truck tomorrow. It's a longer decision process than that.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Certainly, the fundamentals behind it, I think, are reopening a lot of discussions that we're excited to take part in.

[Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum]

Got it. No, that's very helpful. Maybe just my second one for Bob. You mentioned lower base fuel margins and something that, you know, was kind of the expectation, and I just wanna clarify. I mean, was that commentary for Q1 or early in the year? If I think about especially in trucking, when you've got high diesel margins, you can still offer a pretty healthy discount and, you know, it's a pretty good margin environment for you. Just maybe clarify that statement and maybe how you're thinking about that for the remainder of the year.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Eric, that, I mean, that comment there is kind of looking at the full year. I mean, when we gave our guidance back in February, we talked about some of the dynamics that could impact, you know, what are our guidance for 2026. The possibility of lower margins from a variety of reasons was in the mix, and it's really kind of throughout the year. I will say to the point you're making is, we have numerous levers. While maybe that, while the margin gets impact from.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

One area, the fact that we're enjoying, this, you know, kind of the higher prices with our costs remaining pretty stable, helps offset some of that. It's kind of a go forward look, but certainly in our plan.

[Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum]

Okay, thanks a lot.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Great. Thanks, Eric.

[Operator]

Thank you. We'll now go to Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Rob Brown, Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets]

Hi, Clay and Bob. Thanks for taking my call. On kind of the RNG volume you talked about in the quarter from third parties, could you just kind of clarify how that works and maybe sort of visibility on that?

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. You know, I think it was a strong growth quarter, but particularly when you compare it against last year. I think we wanna be careful on that because part of that growth was at last the first quarter of last year, we did see our volumes trend down. If you remember, we had the biogas reform that sort of pushed a lot of our volume into Q4 of 2024, so Q1 of 2025 was lower. Of course, you know, we always have bad weather in the first quarter, but last year it was really spread throughout the country. We had less, I should say, we had less RNG from our third parties, in addition to our own production that was down.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

I think we're really very pleased with the first quarter, a lot of it really was that we were comparing against a very easy comp in Q1 of 2025.

[Rob Brown, Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets]

Okay, thank you. Just to clarify, getting the CARB pathway certification right, how it sounds like that's great. How does that sort of flow through into the ability to get credit?

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Well, it basically just, you know, almost doubles the value of the LCFS or doubles the number of LCFS credits we can generate. You know, when we're at 150 versus the 300, you're just able to generate more credits off the same fuel that's coming through.

[Rob Brown, Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets]

Okay, great. Thank you. I'll turn it over.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Thanks, Rob.

[Operator]

Thank you. We'll now go to Matthew Blair with TPH. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

[Matthew Blair, Analyst at TPH]

Thanks, and good afternoon, Clay and Bob. Could you talk a little bit more about the-

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Hey, Matthew.

[Matthew Blair, Analyst at TPH]

Good afternoon. The comment where you talked about higher demand from customers outside of your network, could you unpack that a little bit? Do you think you were taking share from some of your competitors, or was it just a situation that these customers were utilizing their existing CNG trucks a little bit more and just needing more fuel given rising diesel prices? Could you also talk about what end markets you saw increased demand from? Thank you.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Matthew, that it is you know, there's other folks out there with CNG fueling stations and you know, there are instances where you know, based on supply availability and that sort of thing, where we well, where we will flow our RNG into those stations. It's really a you know, kind of supply demand and I couldn't necessarily tell you what's going on with their demand, but I know that they do need the supply and so we're able to move the supply. You know, we've done it before. you know, it's not necessarily routine, but that's what that looks like, is we have the RNG and we can flow it to other places. It's kind of the beauty of the distribution model.

[Matthew Blair, Analyst at TPH]

Yeah. Sounds good. Could you talk about the fuel distribution guide for 2026? It looks like you did not change it. Still 67 million to approximately 70 million, despite the good result in the first quarter, 19 million. I think you mentioned that you would expect things to roll off a little bit in Q2. I guess just to clarify, are you already seeing softer conditions so far in the second quarter, or is that just your general expectation?

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Well, I won't comment on necessarily what I'm seeing in the second quarter. It's not really softer. Two systems. I think it's more of a comment relative to, the volatility and the strength that we saw in the first quarter.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

And-

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Knowing that, you know, we may not see that level of strength as we go forward.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

We had some unique opportunities to sell some RNG to some of our customers that is probably not gonna be repeated. While it was a good, you know, it was a good result, I think, you know, like we said, it was an easy comp against last year. I think as you try to, you know, don't just multiply it by four for the full year because, you know, there were some unique opportunities in Q1 that we took advantage of.

[Matthew Blair, Analyst at TPH]

Sounds good. Thanks for your comments.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Thank you, Matthew.

[Operator]

Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your keypad. We'll go next to Betty Zhang with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

[Betty Zhang, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to ask about kind of Amazon and that relationship. Earlier Amazon announced its logistics services. Do you think there'd be an opportunity to leverage that existing relationship and maybe you know increase some RNG volumes to them? For my follow-up also related to Amazon. On those warrant charges you mentioned it's now kind of shared between the fuel and services. Is this a change in the contract with Amazon or how would you describe that change? Thank you.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Betty, I'll take the first comment. You know, we do not comment specifically on Amazon. We wanna be very careful that that is not. You know, we just can't and don't and won't do that. I think that across our customers though, you know, every single customer, we do look at those that have existing trucks, whether they're, you know, 12 L, 9 L, wherever they are, we work with all of our customers to try to increase the penetration into their fleet with the X15N. You know, like I said, I'm not gonna speak specific to Amazon, but, you know, it's just good business sense to try to do that.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

You know, work with customers that you have already and see if you can, you know, continue your growth with them. Now, as far as the Amazon warrant charge, I'll let Bob take that one.

[Bob Vreeland, CFO at Clean Energy Fuels]

Yeah. Betty, I'll just say 'cause I really can't say that much, but, it was not an arbitrary change. I mean, any kind of change like that is typically gonna, you know, be kind of contractually, the reason is, you know, contractually, on that front. We are just basically, you know, doing the appropriate accounting based on the contract that we have.

[Betty Zhang, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, there are no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the meeting back over to Clay Corbus.

[Clay Corbus, President and CEO at Clean Energy Fuels]

All right, Dana. Thanks very much. Thank everybody else for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

[Operator]

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Bob Vreeland, CFO
• Clay Corbus, President and CEO
• Tom Driscoll, VP of Strategic Development and Sustainability

Analysts

• Betty Zhang, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Eric Stine, Analyst at Craig-Hallum
• Matthew Blair, Analyst at TPH
• Rob Brown, Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets