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Regulatory 

Announcement

Office of Transportation

and Air Quality

EPA420-F-06-020

February 2006

Removal of Reformulated Gasoline 

Oxygen Content Requirement and 

Revision of Commingling Prohibition 

to Address Non-Oxygenated 

Reformulated Gasoline

To provide U.S. oil refiners with greater flexibility in producing cleanburning gasoline, EPA is removing the two percent oxygen content 

requirement for reformulated gasoline (RFG) nationwide.

Overview

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is amending the 

reformulated gasoline (RFG) regulations to remove the oxygen content requirement and associated compliance requirements. Because the 

2005 Energy Policy Act provided for different compliance dates for the 

removal of the RFG oxygen requirement in California and the rest of the 

country, EPA is implementing the removal of the oxygen requirement 

in two separate rules. One direct final rule removes the RFG oxygen requirement and related compliance requirements for California gasoline. 

The effective date for this rule is 60 days from the date of publication of 

the rule. The other direct final rule removes the oxygen requirement for 

RFG nationwide. The effective date for this rule is May 5, 2006, (270 

days from enactment of the Energy Act), or 60 days from publication of 

the rule in the Federal Register, whichever is later.
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These direct final rules also revise the current prohibition against combining volatile organic compound (VOC)-controlled RFG blended with 

ethanol with VOC-controlled RFG blended with other oxygenates. The 

revision also prohibits combining VOC-controlled RFG blended with 

ethanol with non-oxygenated VOC-controlled RFG, except in limited 

circumstances authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Background

Section 211(k) of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) 

required RFG to contain oxygen in an amount that equals or exceeds 2.0 

weight percent. Accordingly, EPA’s current regulations require RFG refiners, importers and oxygenate blenders to meet a 2.0 or greater weight 

percent oxygen content standard. Recently, Congress passed legislation 

which amended Section 211(k) of the CAA to remove the RFG oxygen 

requirement. To be consistent with the current CAA Section 211(k), these 

direct final rules modify the RFG regulations to remove the oxygen standard in Section 80.41. These rules also modify several other sections of 

the RFG regulations which contain provisions designed to implement and 

ensure compliance with the oxygen standard.

Under the current regulations at 40 CFR Part 80, there is a prohibition against combining VOC-controlled RFG blended with ethanol 

with VOC-controlled RFG blended with any other oxygenate during 

the period January 1 to September 15, because of the volatility increase 

that results when such blending occurs. With the removal of the oxygen requirement for RFG, in order to maintain the effectiveness of this 

provision, it is necessary to amend the regulations to have the prohibition 

apply to combining VOC-controlled RFG blended with ethanol with any 

non-ethanol VOC-controlled RFG, including non-oxygenated RFG. EPA 

is making this revision with these rulemakings.

The Energy Act contains a provision which specifically allows retail 

outlets to sell non-ethanol-blended RFG which has been combined with 

ethanol-blended RFG under certain conditions and limitations. These 

rules implement this provision of the Energy Act.

RFG has been required to be used since 1995 in metropolitan areas with 

the most severe air pollution and in other non-attainment areas that requested the cleaner burning gasoline. Today, about 30 percent of the gas 

used in the United States is RFG.
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Effect on Industry

These rules will remove the burden on industry of having to comply with 

the oxygen requirement for RFG and associated compliance requirements. It will allow retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers to combine ethanol-blended VOC-controlled RFG with non-ethanol-blended 

VOC-controlled RFG under certain conditions and limitations.

Health and Environmental Effects

The emissions benefits of the RFG program are not expected to be reduced as a result of these direct final rules.

Public Participation Opportunities

EPA is issuing these rules without prior proposal because no adverse 

comments are anticipated. However, in the “Proposed Rules” section of 

the Federal Register publication, EPA is issuing two separate documents 

that will serve as proposals to adopt the provisions in the direct final 

rules if EPA receives adverse comments.

You can access these rules and related documents on EPA’s Office of 

Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) EPA web site at: 

www.epa.gov/otaq/rfg_regs.htm

For More Information

For more information on these rules, 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