United States             Air and Radiation         EPA420-F-00-054
 Environmental Protection                         November 2000
 Agency

 Office of Transportation and Air Quality
Regulatory
Announcement
 American Samoa Exemption from the
 Conventional Gasoline Anti-dumping
 Requirements
 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is granting the
 Territory of American Samoa's petition for exemption from the anti-
 dumping requirements for conventional gasoline. EPA finds that without
 this exemption, the price of gasoline in the Territory could rise
 significantly. With this exemption, the price of gasoline could decrease
 by 10 cents or more per gallon.
Background
Section 325 of the Clean Air Act allows American Samoa to petition the
EPA Administrator for exemption from certain regulations based on their
unique geographical, meteorological, or economic factors which would
cause such regulations to be infeasible or unreasonable.

In 1993, EPA promulgated regulations on the production and sale of
reformulated gasoline and "conventional" gasoline (gasoline that is not
required to be reformulated). Conventional gasoline produced by a
refiner or importer must not be more polluting or cause more motor
vehicle emissions than gasoline produced by that refiner or importer in
1990. In the production of reformulated gasoline (a gasoline that has
been further processed and refined to reduce components that contribute
most to pollution), a refiner cannot "dump" into its gasoline pool those
polluting components removed from the refiner's reformulated gasoline.
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This is called the "anti-dumping" gasoline program. These requirements
apply to all gasoline produced, imported, and consumed in the United
States and its territories.

Since 1995, the year the Agency's anti-dumping regulations went into
effect, American  Samoa has been importing gasoline that complies with
these regulations from a Hawaiian refiner. This company has since
withdrawn from importing gasoline into American Samoa leaving
American Samoa with two importers who are able to meet the islands's
gasoline supply needs at a reasonable price but only if they are able to
import gasoline from Far Eastern refineries that do not produce gasoline
conforming with EPA's anti-dumping regulations. Currently, American
Samoa has enforcement discretion that allows EPA to defer enforcement
of its gasoline anti-dumping regulations for a one year period — January
1,2000, to January 1,2001.

Since there are no other gasoline importers capable and willing to
supply American Samoa with complying gasoline, EPA finds  that the
Territory is reliant on the two importers who are currently supplying the
islands' gasoline  from their Far Eastern refineries.

EPA also finds that if the islands are required to import gasoline from
the U.S. mainland, the price of gasoline could rise as much as 14 to 18
cents more per gallon—forcing the American Samoan citizen to pay as
much as 38 cents more per gallon than is paid on the mainland. Ameri-
can Samoa is already paying 20 cents more per gallon than on the U. S.
mainland.
The volume of gasoline imported into American Samoa is small and no
degradation in the islands' air quality is expected to ensue as a result of
today's action. American Samoa is in attainment with the air quality
standards. However, if conditions warrant it and the air quality degrades
in the islands, EPA will reopen the exemption for a reconsideration.
For
You can access the direct final and proposed rules electronically on the
Office of Transportation and Air Quality Web site at:

    http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels.html	

For further information on this rule, please contact Marilyn Winstead
McCall at  (202) 564-9029.
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