Showing posts with label Clean Air Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clean Air Act. Show all posts

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Interesting Oil Company Case Reports

Florida Oil Spill Tip Line just got some interesting information from a Lawyer performing some legal research for a soon to be published work, . In the course of research on loss and restitution for an article in progress, Attorney Benson Weintraub stumbled upon this interesting case:

"United States v. BP Products of North America, Inc., 610 F.Supp.2d 655, 660 (S.D. TX. 2009) (“BP Products North America, Inc. entered a plea of guilty to an information charging a felony violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The charge arises from the March 23, 2005 explosion at the Texas City, Texas plant that killed 15 and injured scores. The plea agreement stipulates the sentence: a $50 million fine and three years of probation with the conditions that BP Products comply with a Settlement Agreement reached with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) and an Agreed Order imposed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”).”). BP also paid more than $1 billion in restitution."

Case is also discussed here: "United States v. BP Products North America, Inc., 610 F.Supp.2d 655 (S.D.Tex. 2009)

"Clean Air Act Felony Guilty Plea Accepted: In a seventy-five page opinion related to the largest criminal fine to date under the federal Clean Air Act (“CAA”) against a corporation, the court accepted the guilty plea to a felony information.  Technically, the plea related to federal enforcement of knowing violation of CAA accidental release prevention requirements and applicable EPA rules requiring a Risk Management Plan.  See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7413(c)(1) and 7412(r)(7) and 40 CFR Part 68.  Enforcement keyed to a March 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery that, according to the opinion, killed fifteen people and injured at least 170 people."

The source reporting both the paragraph above and below was a  resource for The General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section of the State Bar of Texas. The writer continued,  "The accepted plea agreement imposed a $50 million fine and three years probation conditioned on compliance with an OSHA settlement agreement and TCEQ Order.  Such agreement and Order added millions of dollars for additional regulatory fines as well as corrective actions.  The opinion also noted that BP had paid over $ 1.6 billion to settle thousands of civil cases.  The lengthy opinion included extensive analysis, including of objections to the plea from victims of the explosion."

Source: http://gpsolo.com/Environmental_Law.htm

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