WASHINGTON — Venezuela lost its bid to exceed U.S. standards for smog producing chemicals in gas imported for the new low-smog fuels, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

Under a new Clean Air Act regulation, Venezuela and other foreign importers seeking to sell gas for the reformulated fuel that will be used beginning in 1995 must conform to a U.S. average on smog-causing chemicals, said Richard Wilson, director of EPA’s mobile source program.

Ed Rothschild, policy director of the consumer group Citizen Action said the decision will mean that consumers on the East Coast, where Venezuelan gas is heavily sold, “may see higher prices for gasoline because … there may be less supply available.”

Several foreign countries import gas to the United STates, but EPA said Venezuela was the only one complaining that the new regulation’s complexities end up holding Venezuela to a higher standard than some U.S. producers.

The rule requires that beginning in 1995, refiners may not sell gas for reformulated fuel unless its smog-producing components are reduced from 1990 levels.

Domestic refiners each will use their own 1990 level as a base. EPA set a base for foreign refiners equal to the average of all U.S. refiners in 1990.

Venezuela objected that it should be treated like a domestic refiner and allowed to use its own 1990 average.

That would mean its gasoline would have fewer of some smog-producing components than U.S. gas, but more olefins and sulfur, two contributors to smog, said Wilson.

“There’s an equity issue and an environmental issue,” Wilson said. He said there still may emerge a solution to Venezuela’s problem.