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RNG Supplier Clean Energy Fuels Promotes Clay Corbus to CEO
Longtime Chief Executive Andrew Littlefair to Retire
Key Takeaways:
- Corbus — who joined Clean Energy Fuels in 2007 — most recently managed the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company’s RNG production and distribution businesses.
- Clean Energy supplies RNG nationwide, operates more than 600 stations and expects trucking demand to rise with Cummins X15N availability.
- Corbus said the company will keep serving transit and refuse fleets while courting longhaul carriers with diesel-competitive pricing and lower fuel price volatility.
Renewable natural gas producer and fueling station operator Clean Energy Fuels appointed Clay Corbus as CEO on April 23, replacing the retiring Andrew Littlefair.
Corbus — who joined Clean Energy Fuels in 2007 — most recently managed the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company’s RNG production and distribution businesses. Before joining Clean Energy Fuels, Corbus worked as an investment banker.
“Co-founding Clean Energy with Boone Pickens and leading it through decades of growth has been a great privilege. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built, and I’m confident we have the right leader in Clay to take the company to the next level,” Littlefair said.
Corbus told Transport Topics that the biggest change at Clean Energy Fuels since he joined the company is that natural gas is available to commercial vehicle operators nationwide rather than just in urban areas.
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Littlefair
In addition, he said, now almost all of the fuel is RNG rather than compressed natural gas manufactured from hydrocarbons.
Clean Energy Fuels has more than 600 fueling stations in North America. It has nine RNG production sites at dairy farms as well as joint ventures with BP and TotalEnergies.
The RNG is transported by pipeline to the service locations.
Clean Energy Fuels does not operate landfill RNG facilities, although its first production site in Texas was a landfill facility.
Demand from the transportation sector is expected to grow in the coming years with the launch of Cummins’ X15N engine and ascending availability across original equipment manufacturers.
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Clean Energy Fuels has more than 600 fueling stations in North America. (Clean Energy Fuels)
Freightliner opened its order book for fifth-generation Cascadias equipped with the X15N in April 2025. The launch of engine availability on America’s best-selling tractor was seen as a tipping point for RNG use in the longhaul trucking sector.
Looking forward, Corbus told TT that Clean Energy Fuels aimed to remain a good partner for transit operators and refuse truck haulage companies — historically the earliest adopters and largest users of RNG in the transportation sector — but wanted to offer carriers operating longhaul Class 8 tractors an option with lower fuel price volatility.
“It’s always been my job to try to see around the corners and see what’s next and think, you know, a little bit differently about, OK, if what we’re doing hasn’t resulted in adoption, what can we do differently that can result in adoption?” he said.
Adoption of tractors powered by RNG has been slower than anticipated, partly because of the policies of the Trump administration, said Corbus, but Clean Energy Fuels and its partners are now able to offer an option competitive with diesel to fleets.
