United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-02-001
Environmental Protection February 2002
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
v>EPA Environmental
Fact Sheet
Reformulated Gasoline
Transition Fact Sheet
The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating the existing
blendstock accounting regulations for Reformulated Gasoline (RFG).
This action will allow refineries more flexibility to sell gasoline
blendstocks and improve refiners' overall ability to supply cleaner
gasoline by eliminating significant record-keeping and reporting
requirements.
The Agency is taking this action in conjunction with other recent actions
to ease the RFG seasonal transition, when refiners and distributors
switch from winter-grade to summer-grade RFG. A separate regulatory
modification was made in December which allows for greater flexibility
in providing additional RFG when supply is tight.
Also, new enforcement guidance will be issued to allow gasoline
terminal operators a broader testing tolerance than currently permitted
for the initial tank turnover from winter to summer fuel. The guidance
outlines EPA's policy on allowing a 2 percent testing tolerance for the
volatile organic compound (VOC) performance standard. The 2 percent
enforcement tolerance will apply at terminal locations at the time the
terminal first classifies the tank as complying with summer standards for
federal RFG.
Taken together, these three actions will help ensure a more orderly
transition from winter to summer fuel, while maintaining the
environmental benefits of cleaner burning RFG.
I Printed on Recycled Paper
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Background
Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to develop emission perfor-
mance standards for RFG for the ozone season. With the exception of the
air toxics standard which is in effect year-round, all other emission
performance standards are in effect for the summertime (i.e., the ozone
season). Such RFG is referred to as summer gasoline.
In addition, the Clean Air Act required EPA to establish the anti-dumping
regulations to prevent increases in oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and toxics
air emissions from conventional gasoline as a result of RFG production.
Thus, the anti-dumping regulations prevent a refinery from transferring,
or "dumping," the relatively dirty components that it removes from its
RFG (such as benzene) into its conventional gasoline (CG).
Why EPA is Eliminating the Blendstock Accounting
Requirements
The blendstock accounting requirements are no longer necessary. When
refineries produce more total gasoline than that produced in 1990, the
additional gasoline over and above the 1990 baseline volume must meet
the statutory baseline for all refineries regardless of the refinery's indi-
vidual baseline. The shifting of blendstocks from one refinery to another
where both refineries produce more gasoline than they did in 1990 has
very little potential to cause any adverse environmental impact. In addi-
tion, restrictions placed on refiners by the Mobile Source Air Toxics rule
makes refineries much less likely to accept high toxics-emissions gaso-
line blendstocks from other refineries. Thus, this action should make it
easier for refiners to transfer gasoline blendstocks without worsening
emissions.
EPA examined individual refinery situations and concluded that, for the
very limited number of refineries producing volumes where a transfer
could result in some increased emissions, there is little possibility for
gaming, since clean/dirty refinery baseline pairs within a specific emis-
sion category (NOx or toxics) are very uncommon.
The blendstock accounting regulations were originally meant to restrict
emissions by preventing excessive transfers of'dirty" blendstocks from
refineries with "clean" baselines to refineries with "dirty" baselines.
These regulations required significant additional reporting by a refinery
which transferred more than a certain percentage of its gasoline produc-
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tion. However, individual refinery baselines apply only to that volume of
conventional gasoline (CG) production equivalent to the individual
refinery's 1990 CG production. Any volume of CG produced by a
refinery greater than its 1990 CG production must meet the average
emissions of all gasoline produced in 1990 (the statutory baseline).
Health and Environmental Impacts
The clean air benefits of the RFG program will continue to be realized.
The goal of the RFG program is to reduce motor vehicle emissions of
the pollutants that contribute to ozone, or smog, and toxic pollutants,
such as benzene. Smog is formed when VOCs, NOx, and other pollut-
ants such as CO react in the presence of sunlight. The RFG program sets
limits for these pollutants that refiners must meet, regardless of the
oxygenate they choose.
The clean air benefits of the RFG program are significant. The program
reduces smog-forming pollutants by 105,000 tons and toxic pollutants
by 24,000 tons annually. This is equivalent to eliminating the pollution
from 16 million cars every year.
For Further Information
The rule may be downloaded from our web site at http://www.epa.gov/
otaq/rfg.htm For further information about the rule, contact Chris
McKenna at (202) 564-9037.
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