Learn the Issues
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Will non-obligated parties that can hold title to RINs be required to balance them each quarter?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Every party that owns assigned RINs must comply with the end-of-quarter check described in regulation Section 80.1128(b)(5). This provision ensures that RINs must be transferred with renewable fuel as renewable fuel moves through the distribution system. However, this provision…
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Will refiners produce No. 1 diesel fuel at 15 ppm sulfur? What other cold weather-gelling strategies are available to the end-user?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Yes, some refiners will produce No. 1 diesel fuel. There are also various other cold-flow improver additives currently on the market as well. Question and Answer was originally posted at Questions and Answers on the Clean Diesel Fuel Rules…
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Will a portable midrange infrared analyzer be acceptable if correlated to the mandatory test method at an independent laboratory for monitoring the oxygenates, benzene, and aromatics for terminals and retailers in their quality assurance programs?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Testing for downstream quality assurance programs may be done with test methods other than the regulatory methods if adequate correlation to the regulatory test methods is demonstrated. However, testing for downstream oxygenate blending must be done using the regulatory…
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Will a regulated party's defense fail if test results indicate the product is over the standard but within the EPA announced test tolerance?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. As discussed in the Enforcement Tolerance section of this document, all gasoline downstream of the refinery or importer level may be released if test results for each parameter show the gasoline to be within the applicable standard plus the…
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Will transmix processors be allowed to "stack" ethanol and exceed the maximum allowable oxygenate content without regard to VOC requirements?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Transmix processors who produce RFG are considered to be refiners and are required to meet all RFG standards and requirements that apply to refiners for the RFG produced, including the standards for oxygen and the renewable oxygenate. To the…
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Would the following scenario require product transfer documents? At the end of a month of gasoline transactions, the following shortages apply:
Company A owes 10,000 barrels of product to company B
Company B owes 10,000 barrels of product to company C
Company C owes 10,000 barrels of product to company A
Instead of physically shipping any fuel the companies just correct their books to show everything is even.See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. EPA would not consider this a transfer of either custody or title since no actual gasoline is represented by these "book transfers"; however, PTD's must be provided where there is a transfer of title or custody of any volume…
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Are there any plans for laboratory certifications?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. No. It is the responsibility of each refiner to ensure the quality of the independent laboratory it is using. (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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Who accounts for blending operations that take place in leased storage facilities?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Under the regulations, a refiner is any person who owns, leases, operates, controls, or supervises a refinery. As indicated above, an oxygenate blender is any person who owns, leases, operates, controls, or supervises an oxygenate blending facility, or who…
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Who accounts for imported finished gasoline blended with blendstock?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. If the blendstock added to the imported finished gasoline is oxygenate, then the blending activity is ignored and the finished gasoline is reported by the importer. If some other blendstock is blended to the imported finished gasoline, e.g., to…
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Who actually calculates the RVO? The refinery or EPA?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Each obligated party calculates the RVO itself, based on its annual gasoline volume. See regulation Sections 80.1152(a)(1)(v) and (vi). Question and Answer was originally posted at: Questions and Answers on the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (pdf) (55 pp, 221…
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Which market indicators will cause EPA to change the RFS standard?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. EPA will use information from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) that projects volumes of gasoline and renewable fuel in order to calculate the standard. Please refer to section 80.1105 of the regulation. Question and Answer was originally posted at…
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Who is the EPA contact person for questions about the procedure for measuring total aromatics with a GC-MS?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Contact Carl Scarbro (313) 668-4209 or Bruce Kolowich (313) 668-4582. (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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Who is the transferee in a custody transfer where the owner of the receiving tank/truck/barge is different than the operator (scheduler) of the tank/truck/barge, who may also be different from the company that provides the employees of the site? Can a company assume that when multiple parties can be the transferee, that one can take on the role of being the designated responsible party?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Regarding transfers of custody, PTDs are intended to be given to the person physically taking custody of the product. Where multiple parties are involved in a physical transfer of the product, and the transferor does not know the name…
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Will non-obligated parties in possession of RINs create a RIN shortage?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The in-use production volumes of renewable fuel are expected to exceed the requirements of the RFS program by a substantial margin. As a result, we expect there to be a surplus of RINs for at least the first few…
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Assuming that PTD's are required for exchange transactions and the data could be electronically stored in a manner ensuring the security and integrity of the data, would it be sufficient to provide transferees with access to electronic PTD's if the PTD's contain the same data as the original except for the absence of the drivers signature? Would it be sufficient to make the PTD's available through an electronic interface or would the transferor be required to electronically transmit?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The regulations require that the transferor must provide to the transferee documentation that includes all the PTD information, not just make it accessible to the transferee. As a result, the PTD requirements would not be satisfied if the transferee…
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Are truck drivers required to test the last three deliveries to a station if they are from different suppliers?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Section 80.69(e)(2) requires certain sampling and testing by oxygenate blenders who splash blend and provides that quality assurance testing must be conducted either prior to when the delivery truck driver puts gasoline into the underground tank at the retail…
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To blend gasoline from various components, must we be registered as a refiner?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Yes. Registration is required for any refiner, importer, and oxygenate blender that produces any reformulated gasoline, and any refiner and importer of conventional gasoline. (§§ 80.76(a) and 80.103.) Section 80.65(d)(3) requires each batch of reformulated or conventional gasoline or…
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A blender/importer unloads 200,000 barrels of imported blendstock into a tank at a registered terminal and blends the imported blendstock into reformulated gasoline. After the finished gasoline is certified as RFG, 150,000 barrels of the product is shipped out, and the next shipment of imported blendstock arrives. Can the imported blendstock be unloaded onto the remaining 50,000 barrels of certified RFG and reblended? (This seems to be defined as a prohibited activity if the subsequent blend is "dirtier," even though it meets RFG specifications.)
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The shipped batch of RFG should be reported as 150,000 barrels of RFG. The 50,000 barrels which are left are not considered to be part of the RFG batch for reporting purposes, because only the shipped volume is reported…
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A blender was producing gasoline in leased tankage in 1990. The blender subsequently purchases the tanks and moves them to a different physical location. Do the baseline properties and volumes associated with the leased tanks "move" to the new blending location?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. To the extent that blending operations remain the same, yes, the baseline associated with that operation should be used at the new location. (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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The California enforcement exemption provided in the RFG regulations can be lost as a result of the assessment of civil, criminal or administrative penalty for violation of the federal RFG or anti-dumping provisions or for violation of CARB's Phase II RFG regulation. The effective party may petition EPA for relief for good cause. Good cause may include a showing that the violation was not a substantial violation of the federal or California RFG standards. However, under a literal interpretation of this provision, a California refiner could lose the enforcement exemption over a trivial manner. Can EPA apply narrower criteria, including establishment of willful wrongdoing criteria and the documentation or repeated offenses over a specific period of time before revocation of the exemption can occur? Additionally, clarification is needed on exemption implications of a settlement between a California refiner and CARB on California Phase II RFG enforcement matters. Can a violation of CARB Phase II RFG regulation not resulting in non-compliance with federal RFG be considered insufficient grounds for losing the exemption?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Each violation of CARB's RFG standard will be examined for its federal implications on a case-by-case basis. (8/29/94) This question and answer was posted at