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What options are available to refiners (and other regulated parties) in California for downgrading federal RFG in 1995, and CARB Phase II RFG in 1996 and beyond, to conventional gasoline for use outside the State of California. Such downgrading may be necessary, for example, at a terminal located in California downstream of the refinery but close to the California border with Arizona or Nevada, and that receives product via a pipeline that also goes into Arizona or Nevada. There undoubtedly will be situations where "California" gasoline is shipped via the pipeline to this terminal, but the terminal tanks are too full to receive all of this "California" gasoline. In such a case it will be necessary to allow the "California" gasoline to continue moving down the pipeline to a terminal outside California. In most cases, this gasoline would have been in fungible storage prior to shipment on the pipeline and the sample obtained at the refinery will not represent the gasoline diverted out of California.
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Normally, RFG may be redesignated as conventional gasoline without any restrictions, so long as the product transfer documents reflect this redesignation, and the redesignated gasoline is in fact used as conventional gasoline. See the Answers to Questions IX-B-13 and…
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What procedures must be followed if product is downgraded, e.g., RFG is downgraded to conventional? What procedures apply at the refinery as opposed to downstream?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. There is no prohibition on the sale of RFG in conventional areas. Once a batch of gasoline is certified as RFG and released from the refinery its designation cannot be changed by the refiner. However, the refinery can change…
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At what point in the import process must shipments of imported gasoline be sampled in order to meet the RFG and anti-dumping requirements?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Section 80.65(e)(1) requires importers to determine the properties applicable to the RFG standards for each batch of imported gasoline designated as RFG prior to the gasoline leaving the import facility, by analyzing a representative sample from the batch using…
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The applicability of standards in §80.101(c) is not clear. Do these provisions apply by refiner, regardless of how its refineries are aggregated? These provisions should apply to either individual refineries or aggregated refineries, depending on the refiner's choice of grouping refineries according to §80.101(h).
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The standards specified at §80.101(c) apply to individual refineries or refinery groupings as selected by the refiner under § 80.101(h). (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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Are any categories of gasoline users in the RFG covered areas exempt from the requirement to use RFG instead of conventional gasoline?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Section 211(k)(5) of the Clean Air Act describes the scope of the requirement to use RFG in the RFG covered areas: (5) PROHIBITION. -- Effective beginning January 1, 1995, each of the following shall be a violation of this…
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In a case where an independent lab collects more than one sample from a batch (e.g., top/middle/lower samples), how many samples must be retained by the independent lab?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. For EPA's purposes, an independent lab must collect a single representative sample for each batch of RFG, and it is this single sample that should be analyzed and retained for transfer to EPA if necessary. If more than one…
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Are independent labs required to report to EPA, the refiner, or both? What are the reporting requirements for independent labs in the case an independent lab's analysis shows gasoline does not meet relevant RFG standards?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Under § 80.65(f)(3)(iii) refiners and importers are required to have their independent labs report directly to EPA on a quarterly basis. There is no requirement that independent labs must report to the refiner or importer for whom they are…
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If ethanol is splash blended into a truck, does the truck operator become an oxygenate blender? If so, what are the registration, reporting, recordkeeping, and oversight requirements of the trucker? Will two bills of lading (one from a gasoline terminal and one from an ethanol terminal) stapled together be valid documentation of final product?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The regulations at § 80.2(ll) and (mm) specifically provide that any person who owns, leases, operates, controls or supervises an oxygenate blending facility, the definition of which includes a truck, is an oxygenate blender under the regulations. In addition…
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If a purchased lot of certified RFG is combined with another lot of fungible certified RFG in a terminal, and a portion of the mixture is then sold to a third party, what form would the product transfer documentation take? Would it be necessary to convey documentation on a pro rata basis to all purchasers of the blended material?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. There is no specific form or required format for the produce transfer document (PTD) information. It should be included on the documents used to memorialize the transfer of the fuel and should reflect the amount and type of RFG…
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If RFG is sold outside of an RFG area, are there any labeling changes, physically on the pump, that will be required?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. There are no pump labeling requirements under the RFG program, either inside or outside RFG covered areas. However, a mixture of conventional gasoline and RFG may not be sold as reformulated gasoline. Parties, therefore, should only sell gasoline as…
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If a refiner produces only conventional gasoline, what is the purpose of the added burden of testing, auditing, documentation, and general compliance requirements? Since there is only conventional gasoline produced, there can be no dumping. Also, if the EPA is concerned with other companies dumping into our conventional gasoline pool by selling us blendstocks, the blendstock accounting section would prohibit this. Thus, we come back to the question, "What is EPA's intent with the baseline and compliance requirements for conventional gasoline refiners?" Can the EPA exempt refiners from the accounting requirements for conventional gasoline? The EPA could exempt conventional gasoline reporting for a baseline volume; however, this implies that the EPA has a hidden agenda to control the future quality, if not the current quality, of conventional gasoline. Is it possible to petition the EPA for an exemption to the accounting and compliance requirements for conventional gasoline?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The Clean Air Act requires that all conventional gasoline on average be at least as clean as it was in 1990 regardless of who produces the conventional gasoline. Therefore, all refiners and importers are subject to requirements that ensure…
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If for the winter model an RVP of 8.7 has to be used when calculating emissions, what is the purpose of the RVP limits being 6.4 to 11 psi for conventional gasoline?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Some valid range limits must apply to conventional gasoline because even in summer months the RVP varies widely. The Complex Model contains statistically derived regression equations whose accuracy decreases dramatically when they are used outside of the valid range…
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If, in a splash blending situation, the terminal is not an oxygenate blender, would it handle the RBOB as an intermediate owner and transfer title of the RBOB to the exchange customer with the restriction that it only be sold to another intermediate owner of an EPA registered oxygenate blender? Would the exchange company, carrier, and owner of the blended product be responsible for the oxygenate blender oversight provisions and not the terminal operator?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. If a terminal does not meet the oxygenate blender definition, the answer to both questions is "yes." (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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Should a distributor or blender wish to alter the parameters of RFG purchased from others by adding a blending component, are there limitations and/or restrictions on this type of activity? For example, in the Spring, will it be permissible to add a low-pressure blending component to gasoline in order to control volatility? Also, will it be permissible to blend octane deficient gasoline with an octane blending
component to restore octane to specification? If blending is allowed can only the end product be tested and certified or is it necessary to certify each blending step? Is blending in the above manner restricted to companies who have a history of blending gasoline or will the uninitiated also be permitted to blend components?See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The addition of a blendstock to certified RFG would result in the blender becoming a refiner under the RFG regulation. Refiners must establish a baseline, register with EPA and comply with all the testing, certification and other refiner requirements…
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Section 80.70 lists for Virginia the county of Richmond as an opt-in and excludes the city of Richmond. Is this a typographical error?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Yes. The city of Richmond is considered opted-in, not the county of Richmond. (7/1/94) This question and answer was posted at
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It appears we are creating an automatic non-compliance period for September, 2007. If I own ethanol on September 1, 2007, it will not have assigned RINs. As an obligated party, I will be blending this ethanol into gasoline at my terminal, but I won't be getting any RINs for that ethanol.
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. It may be the case that some ethanol blended into gasoline at the beginning of the program will not have assigned RINs. However, the RVO is determined annually, not quarterly or monthly, and in general ethanol purchased after September…
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Is independent sampling and testing required of oxygenate blenders?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. A party who meets the definition of oxygenate blender is not required to have the gasoline it produces sampled or tested by an independent lab. However, an oxygenate blender is required to sample and test the gasoline it produces…
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In many cases, no document is created on the date that title of the renewable fuel is transferred to the purchaser, which typically is the date the purchaser receives the fuel, and an invoice typically is used by the parties to recognize the transfer of t
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The regulations at section 80.1128(a)(7) provide that any RINs assigned to a renewable fuel must be recorded on the product transfer document used to transfer ownership of the renewable fuel volume to another party, or the RINs may be…
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Is independent sampling and testing required of terminals that supply RFG?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. The only parties who are required to meet the independent sampling and testing requirements are refiners and importers. A party that meets the definition of distributor or reseller, such as a terminal, therefore, is not required to meet the…
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At an in-line blending facility, a portion of batch A is captured in an empty storage tank and not immediately shipped. Then a portion of batch C is added to that tank and the combined mixture is shipped. How do the records show compliance with reformulated gasoline regulations?
See More Frequent Questions about Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help. Batches A and C will be certified separately based on the results from the composite sample analyses for each of these batches (unless EPA has approved another method of sampling for a particular refiner). Since product transfer documents do…