EPA - Office ofMobile Sources
EPA420-F-95-001a
Technical Overview
                   ORIGIN OF THE REFORMULATED
                         GASOLINE PROGRAM
 The concept of reformulated gasoline (RFG) is not a new one. Gasoline has undergone
 reformulation along with the evolution of the automobile and the passage of new
 environmental regulations to air pollution.

 In the late 1980's ARCO Petroleum began successfully marketing RFG in California to
 help reduce emissions from motor vehicles.  Their formula, "EC-1," was formulated
 specifically for older vehicles as a replacement for leaded gasoline.

 Other petroleum refiners also began marketing their own gasoline reformulations.

 The Clean Air Act legislation President Bush sent to Congress in 1990 included a number
 of provisions that would have led to the introduction of alternative (non-petroleum) fuels.

 The petroleum and oxygenate industries responded to these provisions by offering the
 RFG program as a substitute for most of the alternative fuel provisions. They proposed a
 fuel that would reduce emissions by 15 percent from all vehicles using the gasoline.
 Their argument, which ultimately succeeded, was that significant fleet turnover would
 need to occur before emission reductions could be realized from alternative fuels. RFG,
 on the other hand, would be effective immediately in the existing fleet.

 The final Clean Air Act legislation not only set emission performance requirements for
 RFG, but it also included a mandate for RFG to contain oxygenates.

 Today's reformulated gasoline grew out of a regulatory negotiation process.  After the
 Clean Air Act was passed, throughout much of 1991, EPA with the petroleum industry,
 oxygenate industry, state and local organizations, environmental groups, auto
 manufacturers, organizations representing the public, and other government agencies
 worked to lay out the framework for the RFG rulemaking.

 EPA continued to work with most of these organizations throughout the development of
 the rulemaking and beyond to ensure it would be a program acceptable to all interests.

-------
Technical Overview                                                             Page 2
       In the meantime, the automobile manufacturers and oil companies voluntarily invested
       millions of dollars in a joint research program, the "Auto/Oil Air Quality Improvement
       Research Program," to quantify the emission impacts of changes in the quality of
       gasoline.

       The results of the Auto/Oil program and numerous other studies conducted by EPA and
       industry revealed that large emission benefits were indeed possible and cost-effective
       through RFG. As a result, the emission standards for RFG in the year 2000 go beyond
       the minimum requirements specified in the Clean Air Act.

       The RFG program was mandated to be implemented only in the nine cities in the country
       with the worst smog (Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, Baltimore,
       Philadelphia, Hartford, and New York City).

       In addition, State Governors requested that many other areas which also have a history of
       smog problems to be included in the program. EPA expanded the program to cover these
       areas.

-------