If an area's standards have been ratcheted, some suppliers of that area will likely opt for a per gallon standard the following year and thus are not required to meet the ratcheted standards. Will it not be much more likely for that area to fail a subsequent survey since subsequent surveys will be comparing results obtained from samples of largely per gallon RFG to a ratcheted standard? Furthermore, if surveys occur during the first part of a year, before it is known whether surveys were failed late in the previous year, how will regulated parties know the standard against which these survey results will be compared?
These are two of several questions which are based upon the following incorrect interpretation of the regulations: Determination of a survey failure during a year when ratcheted standards are in place is based upon a comparison of the survey results to these ratcheted standards. This is an incorrect interpretation.
Determination of failure of a survey for a covered area will ALWAYS be based upon a comparison of the survey results with the applicable per gallon standards and this determination is independent of the current status of ratcheted standards applied to averaged RFG for that area.
Thus, the choice of some refiners to opt to produce RFG based upon a per gallon standard after a ratcheting occurs would not negatively impact the chances that an area would pass a survey. Likewise, since the per gallon standards against which a survey is compared are always known, the question above as to surveys conducted early in the year is irrelevant. (7/1/94)
This question and answer was posted at List of Reformulated Gasoline and Anti-Dumping Questions and Answers: July 1, 1994 through November 10, 1997 (pdf)