WEBVTT - Exxon Agrees to Pay $300 Million in Climate Settlement (Audio)

0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.840
<v Speaker 1>Excellon Mobile has agreed to pay more than three hundred

0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:06.440
<v Speaker 1>million dollars to resolve air pollution violations tied to eight

0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:10.400
<v Speaker 1>chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana, one of two environmental

0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.200
<v Speaker 1>settlements with oil companies announced by the Trump administration on Tuesday.

0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.360
<v Speaker 1>The cases are among the most notable environmental enforcement actions

0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.720
<v Speaker 1>by the Trump administration, with at least one target that

0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:24.960
<v Speaker 1>hits close to home. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, of course,

0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.400
<v Speaker 1>was chief executive officer at Exxon until late last year.

0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.360
<v Speaker 1>Joining us is Pat Parento, a professor of environmental law

0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.040
<v Speaker 1>at Vermont Law School. Pat Scott Pruett, the head of

0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.279
<v Speaker 1>the e p A, is leading the efforts to roll

0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:43.360
<v Speaker 1>back Obama era environmental regulations, including the first limits on

0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.879
<v Speaker 1>carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. So does this settlement

0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.280
<v Speaker 1>surprise you, No, it doesn't surprise me. I'm glad to

0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.480
<v Speaker 1>see the EPA and the Justice Department have reached an

0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.480
<v Speaker 1>agreement with Excellent to correct the violations at these facilities.

0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:01.800
<v Speaker 1>But it has to be noted that these are cases

0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.160
<v Speaker 1>that have been in the works for quite a long time.

0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.039
<v Speaker 1>Um So, as much as anything, it's the work of

0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.080
<v Speaker 1>the Obama administration that produced this result. I think proved

0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.520
<v Speaker 1>and company deserve credit, uh for continuing with those kinds

0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.280
<v Speaker 1>of enforcement cases. Hope we see some more, but I

0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.760
<v Speaker 1>don't think i'd overstate yet the commitment to environmental enforcement

0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.520
<v Speaker 1>until we see a little more. Well, Pat, what what

0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.400
<v Speaker 1>is it that Exxon did wrong here that they're now settling. Well, they,

0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:35.000
<v Speaker 1>like other companies that run these refineries, UH, flare off

0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.480
<v Speaker 1>a lot of the gas, the excess gas, and it

0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.080
<v Speaker 1>includes volatile organic compounds, some of which are quite toxic.

0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.520
<v Speaker 1>And of course, in Texas, where these refineries are concentrated, UH,

0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.000
<v Speaker 1>there's some pretty severe health consequences to local communities, many

0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.960
<v Speaker 1>of which are low income communities that are suffering from

0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:57.320
<v Speaker 1>from the pollution from these facilities. So it's a flaring problem.

0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:01.600
<v Speaker 1>And the controls that Exxon has now committed to spend

0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.880
<v Speaker 1>upwards a three million dollars on are designed to actually

0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.640
<v Speaker 1>capture these gases rather than flare them off. And of course,

0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.399
<v Speaker 1>some of the gases include methane, which which is actually valuable,

0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:17.000
<v Speaker 1>so reducing some of the waste by controlling the flaring

0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:21.280
<v Speaker 1>actually makes some business sense as well. Pat Pruitt is

0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.760
<v Speaker 1>pursuing what he calls up back to basics agenda. He

0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.240
<v Speaker 1>says he'll prior prioritize action on traditional pollutants. What does

0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.600
<v Speaker 1>that mean exactly? Well, this is an example of going

0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.320
<v Speaker 1>after traditional pollutants. Follloutile organic compounds are ubiquitous through many

0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.880
<v Speaker 1>different industrial sectors. It's, i would say, one of the

0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.560
<v Speaker 1>major air quality problems that we have, along with O zone,

0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.440
<v Speaker 1>fine particulates and others. So there's a real long list

0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.960
<v Speaker 1>of these kinds of conventional pollutants and I hope that

0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.240
<v Speaker 1>Mr Pruitt is is sincere in going after them. And

0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.320
<v Speaker 1>of course that takes resources. It takes staff. You can

0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:04.519
<v Speaker 1>just imagine and with eight facilities, that the number of inspections, monitoring,

0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:09.079
<v Speaker 1>report gathering, analysis that went into these cases. That takes people,

0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.680
<v Speaker 1>boots on the ground, if you will. Pru It has

0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.079
<v Speaker 1>put in a budget that would drastically reduce e p

0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.360
<v Speaker 1>a S on the ground capabilities in the enforcement areas.

0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:20.600
<v Speaker 1>So uh, you know, once again there's a bit of

0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.800
<v Speaker 1>inconsistency here. On the one hand, we hear the administrator

0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.440
<v Speaker 1>committing to strong enforcement, but on the other hand, we

0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.600
<v Speaker 1>seem reducing the capability of the agency to actually do that. Well.

0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.240
<v Speaker 1>One other area that I think it's kind of interesting

0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>is if you're there's obviously a pushing e p A

0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.480
<v Speaker 1>under under Mr pruittt to avoid taking action against UH

0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.840
<v Speaker 1>carbon you know, in the atmosphere and things that you know,

0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.320
<v Speaker 1>global warming type things. Um, is there a way for

0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.080
<v Speaker 1>him to steer the agency to only go after traditional

0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.720
<v Speaker 1>pollutants without also looking at carbon issues or can they

0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.680
<v Speaker 1>really be separated out that cleanly? No, they can't be

0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.680
<v Speaker 1>set rated out, either technically or legally, because the Supreme

0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.640
<v Speaker 1>Court has ruled that e p A has a mandatory

0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.480
<v Speaker 1>obligation to regulate carbon from these facilities their oil refineries

0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.840
<v Speaker 1>in the cases that we're talking about, but many others,

0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:18.880
<v Speaker 1>power plants, cement plants, and so forth. And unless UH

0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:23.479
<v Speaker 1>e p A changes it's endangerment finding, and which is

0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.720
<v Speaker 1>very unlikely and would certainly be challenged in court. Um,

0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.800
<v Speaker 1>e p A really doesn't have the discretion not to

0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.880
<v Speaker 1>regulate carbon from these facilities. And of course the Clean

0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.120
<v Speaker 1>Power Plan was designed to shift away from a lot

0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.960
<v Speaker 1>of the most polluting UH industry power plants. I should

0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.839
<v Speaker 1>say that would have the benefit of reducing a lot

0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.000
<v Speaker 1>of the health effects of more conventional pollutants as well.

0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.440
<v Speaker 1>So by not really regulating and shifting away from coal

0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.360
<v Speaker 1>fired power plants, you're also allowing these other air quality

0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.680
<v Speaker 1>problems to continue. Patent about forty five seconds. But tell

0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:04.400
<v Speaker 1>us a about the second agreement announced with Denver based

0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:10.640
<v Speaker 1>PDC Energy. Well, that one involves, uh, a very modest

0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:15.400
<v Speaker 1>fine of about two million or so dollars. That's really

0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.880
<v Speaker 1>kind of a token, uh penalty that that will not

0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.839
<v Speaker 1>have a great deterrent effect. Um. And it's done in

0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.440
<v Speaker 1>conjunction with the state of Colorado, so there's some cooperation

0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.760
<v Speaker 1>involved with that, which is a good thing. But but

0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.520
<v Speaker 1>by itself, it's not a major enforcement action. I would

0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.039
<v Speaker 1>say it's not going to have a significant effect on

0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.960
<v Speaker 1>the industry. All right, thanks so much as always. Pat Parento,

0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:44.280
<v Speaker 1>professor at Vermont Law School. Coming up on Bloomberg Law

0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.520
<v Speaker 1>and investigation by forty five states and d C into

0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.400
<v Speaker 1>an alleged price fixing conspiracy among makers of generic drugs,

0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.039
<v Speaker 1>now targeting executives at two of the drug makers