EPA Approves Request from Kentucky
for the Removal of the Federal
Reformulated Gasoline Program in
the Northern Kentucky Area
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Key Elements of Approval
•	This action approves Kentucky's petition to opt-out of the federal reformulated gasoline
(RFG) program and removes the requirement to sell federal RFG for Boone, Campbell,
and Kenton counties in Kentucky (the Northern Kentucky Area). The requirement to
sell federal RFG in the Northern Kentucky Area will no longer apply as of July 1, 2018.
•	EPA Region 4 recently conducted a rulemaking that approved Kentucky's SIP revision.
The SIP revision rulemaking evaluated whether the removal of the federal RFG program
in the Northern Kentucky Area would not interfere with the maintenance plan for the
2008 ozone NAAQS or any other applicable NAAQS. Kentucky submitted the SIP
revision with the noninterference demonstration to EPA on September 13, 2017. EPA
proposed the approval of the SIP revision on February 14, 2018 (83 FR 6496). EPA final-
ized its approval of the SIP revision on April 2, 2018 (83 FR 13872).
•	Removing the federal RFG requirement for gasoline sold in the Northern Kentucky
Area could be beneficial because this action could improve the fungibility of gasoline in
the Area. With this approval the gasoline sold in the Northern Kentucky Area can be
identical to the fuel sold now in most of the rest of Kentucky. For motorists, the change
in the performance of their vehicle will be virtually unnoticed.
Background
The 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments established specific requirements for the RFG
program to reduce ozone levels in certain areas in the country experiencing ground-level ozone
or smog problems by reducing vehicle emissions of compounds that form ozone, specifically vola-
tile organic compounds (VOCs). The 1990 CAA amendments directed EPA to issue regulations
that specify how gasoline can be "reformulated" so as to result in significant reductions in vehicle
emissions of ozone-forming and toxic air pollutants relative to the 1990 baseline fuel, and to re-
quire the use of such reformulated gasoline in certain "covered areas." The CAA defined certain
nonattainment areas as "covered areas" which are required to use RFG and provided other areas
with an ability to "opt-in" to the RFG program. The CAA provides an opportunity for an area
classified as a Marginal, Moderate, Serious, or Severe ozone nonattainment area, or which is in
the ozone transport region, to "opt-in" to the RFG program upon application by the governor of
the state (or his authorized representative) and subsequent action by EPA.
RFG covered areas as well as RFG opt-in areas are subject to a prohibition on the sale or dis-
pensing by any person of conventional gasoline (non-RFG) to ultimate consumers in the appli-
cable area. The prohibition also includes the sale or dispensing by any refiner, blender, importer,
or marketer of conventional gasoline for resale in any covered areas, without segregating the
conventional gasoline from RFG and clearly marking conventional gasoline and marking the
conventional gasoline as not for sale to ultimate consumers in a covered area.
Kentucky had voluntarily opted Boone, Campbell, and Kenton Counties into the federal RFG
program. Kentucky also opted its portion of the Louisville ozone area (Jefferson County and
parts of Bullitt and Oldham Counties) into the RFG program; however, today's action does not
affect the use of RFG in the Louisville ozone area.
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The Kentucky Cabinet for Energy and Environment on behalf of the State of Kentucky, sub-
mitted a request to opt-out of the federal RFG program for the Northern Kentucky Area, and
additionally requested a revision to its maintenance plan that included a demonstration that the
removal of the federal RFG program would not interfere with maintenance of the NAAQS in
the Northern Kentucky Area. Region 4 conducted a rulemaking for Kentucky's state implemen-
tation plan (SIP) revision request and issued an approval of the (for a revised maintenance plan)
on April 2, 2017. By separate action, EPA is approving the opt-out of the federal RFG program
for the Northern Kentucky Area effective July 1, 2018.
For More Information
You can access the final action and related documents, as well as a current listing of the RFG
covered areas and a summary of RFG requirement on the EPA's Office of Transportation and
Air Quality Web site at: www.epa.gov/gasoline-standards/reformulated-gasoline.
For further information on EPA's approval of the federal RFG opt-out for the Northern Ken-
tucky Area, please contact:
David Dickinson
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-343-9256
E-mail: dickinson.david@epa.gov
Or
Rudy Kapichak
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
2000 Traverwood Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
734-214-4574
E-mail: kapichak.rudolph@epa/gov
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