 BP to pay record 15-million-dollar US air-pollution fine Washington (AFP) Sept 30, 2010 - British energy giant BP has pledged to pay a record 15-million-dollar fine to the US government for releasing pollutants into the air at its Texas refinery, officials said Thursday. The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a joint statement that BP Products North America, a US subsidiary of the group, "has agreed to pay a 15-million-dollar penalty to resolve federal Clean Air Act violations at its Texas City, Texas, petroleum refinery." The penalty is the largest to date assessed for civil violations of the act's chemical accident prevention regulations, they said. The settlement, which requires court approval, addresses violations during three incidents at the refinery: two fires, in March 2004 and July 2005, and a leak in August 2005. During each incident, people in the surrounding Texas City Community were ordered to shelter-in-place as thousands of pounds of flammable and toxic air pollutants were released, the statement said. "The settlement also resolves allegations that BP failed to identify all regulated hazardous air pollutants used at the refinery in plans submitted to EPA," it added. The settlement agreement came as BP works to rebuild its damaged reputation in the United States after a series of accidents, including the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April in the Gulf of Mexico, the country's worst environmental disaster. The company's new chief executive, Bob Dudley, on Wednesday said he would launch a major shake-up of the company in the wake of the Gulf disaster, creating a powerful safety division and overhauling the group's structure. Dudley, who officially starts his job Friday, said the actions were needed "to rebuild trust in BP -- the trust of our customers, of governments, of our employees and of the world at large." |
The shutdown of India's largest copper producer by the Madras High Court marked the second major blow in two months for London-listed Vedanta, whose plan to be a major global metals player rests heavily on its Indian assets.
"It's a difficult environment" for the company, said Kamlesh Bagmar, research analyst at Indian investment house Prabhudas Lilladher.
The court ordered Vedanta's 54-percent-owned subsidiary Sterlite on Tuesday to shut its Tuticorin smelter in a coastal area in southern Tamil Nadu state to protect "mother nature" from "unabated air and water pollution".
Shares of Vedanta, owned by billionaire Anil Agarwal, slid 6.33 percent, or 145 pence, to 2,151 pence in London trade while Sterlite's stock tumbled 8.5 percent, or 15 rupees, to 161.50 rupees on the Mumbai stock exchange.
The closure also pushed up global copper prices as the shutdown aggravated a tight global supply situation.
The court ruling came after India's environment ministry last month rejected controversial plans by Vedanta to mine bauxite in the eastern state of Orissa on land held sacred by an Indian tribe to feed a nearby aluminium refinery.
The Indian government has also threatened to scrap approval for the one-million-tonnes a year refinery in light of alleged "gross violation of environment norms".
The court ruling was the latest sign of a tougher approach by India to improving its green track record as concerns mount about the impact of growing industrialisation on air and water quality, forests, plants and wildlife.
The court said the smelter had polluted areas close to a bio-diverse national marine park and there were large amounts of heavy metals, arsenic and other toxic chemicals in the ground water.
The court order against Sterlite followed a petition from environmental activists challenging clearance given to the smelter that was lodged in 1996.
The smelter has been operating "in compliance with necessary rules and regulations and global standards", Sterlite said in a statement.
The company said it was awaiting the "full text" of the court order to decide on its next step but it was expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The judgement comes as India's government considers a proposal by Vedanta to buy a controlling stake in Cairn India, a unit of Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy.
Vedanta, which has declared it wants to be the country's "natural resources champion", has made an offer worth up to 9.6 billion dollars to buy the stake in Cairn India, whose biggest asset is the oil-rich Mangala field in the western state of Rajasthan.
Sterlite had hoped to double the annual capacity of the 400,000 tonnes Tuticorin smelter by mid-2011.
"This has put the ongoing expansion under a question mark" and "intensified the uncertainty on the stock", said Bagmar of Prabhudas Lilladher.
 del.icio.us |
 Digg |
 Reddit |
 YahooMyWeb |
 Google |
 Facebook |
UK's Shipping Emissions Six Times Higher Than Expected| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
