BP Products to Pay $50M for Illegal Emissions at Texas City Refinery

November 4, 2011

  • November 4, 2011 at 1:39 pm
    The Other Point of View says:
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    “According to the 2009 enforcement action, BP was responsible for 72 separate — and unlawful — pollutant emissions that have been occurring every few months since March 2005.”

    Every single Republican candidate has vowed to cripple the EPA. So if you think corporations should be allowed to pollute the environment without any regulations, if you want to return to the days when our skies were filed with toxic smog, and our rivers were polluted so badly that Lake Erie, the Cayahoga, and Detroit Rivers actually caught fire, vote Republican.

    • November 4, 2011 at 2:48 pm
      rocket88 says:
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      That’s hogwash. The Republican platform is against over regulation, not good housecleaning and safe operations which is everyone’s responsibility. Your Democrat’s simply want to invent a new industry to tax, and that’s called carbon credits. Modeled after the Gore business principle.Assess every houshold on the energy usage, tax them for that usage and return the money to the dolers. As “Oliver Hardy” said…and here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into !…..

      • November 4, 2011 at 2:56 pm
        The Other Point of View says:
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        It’s not hogwash. Everyone of the candidates said they either wanted to eliminate the EPA or strip it to the point that it can no longer regulate. Haven’t you been watching the debates?

      • November 4, 2011 at 2:58 pm
        The Other Point of View says:
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        — Michele Bachmann: EPA Should Be Renamed the Job Killing Organization of America. On June 13, 2011, during a debate hosted by CNN, Bachmann stated, “Every time the liberals get into office, they pass an omnibus bill of big spending projects. What we need to do is pass the mother of all repeal bills, but it’s the repeal bill that will get a job killing regulations. And I would begin with the EPA, because there is no other agency like the EPA. It should really be renamed the job-killing organization of America.”

        — Newt Gingrich: Abolish the EPA. While giving a speech to the conservative CPAC conference early this year, Gingrich offered harsh words when discussing the EPA, calling it a “fundamental threat to freedom in this country.” He went on to say, “I want to replace, not reform EPA, because EPA is made up of self-selected bureaucrats who are anti-American jobs, anti-American business, anti-state government, anti-local control, and I don’t think you can reeducate them.”

        — Tim Pawlenty: We Need Less EPA Monitoring of Our Economy. In remarks on June 7, 2011, Pawlenty stated that “[W]e don’t need the unelected officials at EPA to do what our elected officials in Congress have rejected. We need less EPA monitoring of our economy. And more monitoring of EPA’s effects on our freedom.”

        — Rick Perry: EPA Illustrates How Washington Is Destroying Individuals Ability to Make Their Own Economic Decisions. In his book, Fed Up!, Perry writes, “Our dispute with the EPA in particular illustrates how Washington’s command-and-control environmental bureaucracy is destroying federalism and individuals’ ability to make their own economic decisions.”

        — Mitt Romney: Against EPA Regulation of Carbon Emissions. In response to a question on EPA’s regulation of air quality standards, Romney stated that “Do I support the EPA? In much of its mission yes, but in some of its mission no. The EPA getting into carbon footprints, and… I think we may have made a mistake, we have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies. We can agree to disagree … My view is that the EPA getting into carbon and regulating carbon has gone beyond the original intent of the legislation.”

        — Herman Cain: Put Oil And Coal CEOs In Charge Of EPA Regulations. During a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this summer, Herman Cain said that, as president, he would create a special commission to remove environmental and energy regulations at the EPA that would be stacked with oil and gas heads. He is also on the record saying that eliminating the program entirely also “would be an option.”

        — Ron Paul: No need for the EPA. In an interview with Grist, Paul said he saw no need for it, continuing on to say, “The EPA assumes you might do something wrong; it’s a bureaucratic, intrusive approach and it favors those who have political connections.”

        — Jon Huntsman: New Environmental Regulations Should Be Low Priority. Though Huntsman has one of the most pro-environmental records of the 2012 GOP presidential gang, he has said that “until the economy improves, new environmental regulations should be a low priority.”

        • November 9, 2011 at 5:18 pm
          Always Amazed says:
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          Using Wikipedia again for your source of information?

  • November 4, 2011 at 2:35 pm
    rocket88 says:
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    BP self insures and now you know why! Who would write such a catastrophic laden risk. The US oil companies are far and away safer, more concerned, and risk averse than the non US companies and the loss statistics will prove that out.

    • November 4, 2011 at 3:11 pm
      The Other Point of View says:
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      Sure, just look at Exxon’s record in Alaska. Oops.

      • November 9, 2011 at 5:24 pm
        Always Amazed says:
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        Are you refering to Captin Hazelwood and the Valdez which he ran aground? Which has nothing to do with the safety of our oil companies. OOOPS is right.

  • November 4, 2011 at 6:04 pm
    nk says:
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    I wonder what the state of Texas will do with the money….Does anyone track where it goes and what it pays for?

  • November 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm
    David Berry says:
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    It’s amazing how most people turn this article into a referendum on the EPA. If I’m not mistaken, the EPA is not mentioned at all in this article.

    If anything, this should show that the state can stand up to big companies for violating state pollution laws. Just because we’re in the election mode, let’s not make everything a political debate.

    I’m just saying.
    David Berry
    http://www.txinsurancepro.com/dallas-business-insurance/

  • November 7, 2011 at 4:51 pm
    MP says:
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    I wish I could find the link, but I believe it was the TCEQ that put a new rule into effect recently which mandated air quality testing by an independent third party. Apparently before the coal plants were choosing the inspector or doing it themselves. The graph showed results for each plant in the state over time.

    Prior to the rule change every single plant’s emissions were all in a tight grouping with very little deviation between plants. The levels reported were uniformly low.

    After the rule change the plants all had different emissions levels- in some cases the variances were quite striking. Most, though not all, air quality levels were worse, and in some cases considerably worse.

    What this shows is that self-policing does not work. Effective regulation does work. Kudos to the TCEQ for doing what they are supposed to do instead of what the industry wants them to do.

    The Koch-fueled war against environmental regulation is a disgrace. Republicans should be supporting effective regulation instead of throwing out lines such as “If you elect me I will chain the doors of the EPA shut on my first day in office”. That level of ignorance is absolutely terrifying! And the fact that it is embraced by both the public and the media is even scarier.

  • November 9, 2011 at 6:20 pm
    Raider Fan says:
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    MP thanks for standing up to these pinheads that want to keep splitting America apart. Pretty soon we will just be a third world nation and what will they say then?

    Just my opinion!

    • November 10, 2011 at 3:54 pm
      Always Amazed says:
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      If we keep going as were are now headed – we will be a third world country. EPA or no EPA.



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