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Regulatory

Announcement

Office of Transportation

and Air Quality

EPA420-F-04-063

December 2004

EPA Proposes Modification of

Anti-Dumping Baselines for Gasoline

Produced or Imported for Use in

Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. Territories

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to modify

the reformulated gasoline (RFG) regulations to allow refiners and

importers of conventional gasoline produced or imported for use in

Hawaii, Alaska, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Virgin

Islands to petition EPA to change the way in which they calculate

emissions from such gasoline to demonstrate compliance with the RFG

program’s anti-dumping requirements. We are proposing this rule to

address certain inconsistencies in the regulations which may have the

effect of requiring these refiners and importers to produce or import

gasoline that is cleaner than that required under the Clean Air Act and

that required of refiners and importers of gasoline produced or imported

for use in other parts of the country.

Background

The Clean Air Act (Act) requires EPA to establish rules requiring that

gasoline sold in certain areas be reformulated to reduce vehicle emissions of toxic and ozone-forming compounds. This is known as reformulated gasoline (RFG). The Act also requires EPA to establish rules that

would ensure that non-RFG, or conventional, gasoline used in the rest of

the country becomes no “dirtier” than gasoline produced or imported in
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1990. EPA published regulations for the certification and enforcement of

RFG, and regulations for conventional gasoline on February 16, 1994.

The regulations for conventional gasoline are called the “anti-dumping”

regulations.

This proposed rule would modify the anti-dumping regulations to allow

refiners and importers who produce or import conventional gasoline for

use in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to change the

way that they calculate emissions from such gasoline to calculate their

anti-dumping baselines and evaluate annual average emissions. Under

the current regulations, in certain situations, refiners and importers who

produce or import conventional gasoline for use in these areas are required to comply with a baseline emissions standard that was calculated

using a different model than that required for calculating annual average

emissions. As a result, some conventional gasoline produced or imported

for use in these areas is subject to an inappropriate standard. This proposed rule would address this inconsistency by allowing these refiners

and importers the option to change their anti-dumping baselines to one

that was calculated using the same model as that required for calculating

annual average emissions.

This proposed rule would also extend a similar option to refiners and

importers for purposes of conventional gasoline compliance under the

Mobile Source Air Toxics rule.

Effect on Industry

This proposed rule would provide an alternative compliance method for

refiners and importers of conventional gasoline produced or imported for

use in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands who, under the

current regulations, are required to produce or import gasoline that is

actually cleaner than that required under the Clean Air Act. This rule

would result in lower compliance costs and greater flexibility for these

parties.

Health and Environmental Benefits

This proposed rule would provide an alternative compliance method for

affected parties without compromising the environmental goals of the

RFG program. Under this proposal, even if all of the affected parties

choose the new compliance method, the goals of the RFG program’s

anti-dumping regulations would be met.
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Public Participation Opportunities

We welcome your comments on this proposed rule. For instructions on

submitting written comments, please see the Federal Register notice,

which is available from the EPA Air Docket by calling 202-566-1742;

please refer to Docket No. OAR-2003-0010. In addition, you can access

the proposed rule and related documents on EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) Web site at:

www.epa.gov/otaq/rfg_regs.htm

For More Information

For more information on this proposed rule, please contact Marilyn

Bennett at:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Transportation and Air Quality (6406J)

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460

(202) 343-9624

E-mail: bennett.marilyn@epa.gov