BP Refinery in Texas Called Biggest Polluter

HOUSTON - The nation's worst polluting plant is the BP PLC oil refinery where 15 workers died in an explosion last year, raising questions about whether the company has been underreporting toxic emissions.

BP's Texas City refinery released three times as much pollution in 2004 as it did in 2003, according to the most recent data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The increase at BP was so large that it accounted for the bulk of a 15 percent increase in refinery emissions nationwide in 2004, the highest level since 2000.

The company is investigating whether it has been accurately documenting pollution, the Houston Chronicle reported on Sunday. There could be more federal fines levied against the energy giant if mistakes are found.

BP already faces a record $21.3 million fine from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 300 safety and health violations found at the Texas City refinery after the deadly explosion in March 2005 that also injured 170 workers.

The company reported that it released 10.25 million pounds of pollution in 2004, up from 3.3 million pounds the year before, according to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, which tracks nearly 650 toxic chemicals released into the air, water and land.

BP cautioned that its latest pollution estimates might not be correct because of a recent change in how the plant calculates emissions.

"These were on-paper calculations — not based on real measurements through valves or stacks," spokesman Neil Geary told the newspaper.

According to the EPA, the Texas City plant had more than three times the toxic pollutants as the nation's second most-polluted plant, an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery in Baton Rouge, La.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it was too early to speculate about the accuracy of BP's reported figures. A spokesman said the difference might have been in reported emissions, not actual emissions.

But the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington-D.C. based advocacy group, said the increase shouldn't be dismissed as merely an increase on paper.

"It's real; it just never got reported before," said Eric Shaeffer, a former EPA staffer and the organization's founder. "You can argue that it's not an increase, but the next sentence has to be, 'We've always been bad.'"

Most of the increase in pollution was from formaldehyde and ammonia, which can form smog and soot and irritate the eyes, nose and throat.

BP says that when all pollution is taken into account, emissions from its Texas City plant have dropped 40 percent since 2000.

Before last year's explosion, the refinery processed up to 460,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 3 percent of the nation's gasoline.

BP still faces criticism for management lapses that may have contributed to last year's explosion. The company faces a possible Justice Department investigation and is dealing with victims' lawsuits.

Dirty Secret Ibd Thu Apr 13, 7:00 PM ET

Environment: With Earth Day (April 22) still a week off, there's still time for alarmists to scare the pants off the public with stories of impending doom. But the truth is, the planet keeps getting cleaner.

Noxious emissions from carbon monoxide to sulfur dioxide are down, water quality continues to improve and toxic chemicals -- while still out there -- aren't doing the damage that their critics claim they are.

But don't look for this sort of information in the mainstream media. With few exceptions, they follow the line of environmentalists who are both emotionally and financially invested in a campaign against capitalism and modern living.

And this is their week, their time to sit back and listen as a sympathetic press reminds us how much greedy corporations, monster SUVs, greedy oil companies and even common household cleaners are wrecking our fragile environment.

But don't be fooled; be informed.

A valuable source of information is the latest "Index of Leading Environmental Indicator," which Stephen Hayward has been compiling since the early 1990s. Among the findings in the 2006 edition:

Emissions of carbon monoxide fell by 14.8% in just the four years ended in 2004. Nitrogen oxides were down 15.7%, sulfur dioxide down 6.7% and volatile organic compounds down 11.2%. Only particulate matter, such as smoke, dust and other floating particles, which plunged 80% from 1970 to 2004, increased from 2000 to 2004, and then by only 8.7%. There was also a large decline -- a 98.6% drop -- in lead emissions between 2000 and 2004.

One reason for the gains is that vehicles are burning cleaner than ever -- and that includes the class of cars that has been demonized by environmental groups. "The frequently heard claim that large SUVs 'pollute more,'" writes Hayward, "is a myth."

Acidity levels in water are down in every region, except New England, where they remained stable through the 1990s.

Cancer rates continue their decline after peaking in the early '90s. This is significant because cancer incidents are often blamed on toxic chemicals.

Levels of chemicals found in the human body are also falling, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Releases of toxic chemicals plunged 42% from 1998 to 2003, according to the EPA, even though more chemicals are being counted and more sources are being required to report.

The earth will never be spotless, but neither is it a stinking, smoldering, overflowing trash bin, as the green lobby would have us believe. Earth Day should be marked by celebrations of our progress, not the ominous tones of doom that usually dominate the coverage.

States don't expect EPA to grant gasoline waivers

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. states do not expect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant their requests to sell cheaper, lower-grade fuel to ease a gasoline crunch that struck parts of the East Coast and Texas last week, officials said on Thursday.

Pennsylvania and Maryland have not received responses to formal waiver requests more than a week after President George W. Bush directed the EPA to use their authority to consider temporarily easing the gasoline regulations as part of the administration's efforts to ease pump prices, which have soared in recent weeks to well above $3 a gallon in some cities.

"Haven't heard back from the EPA yet," said Kate Phillips of Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell's press office, in a phone message left late Wednesday. "It doesn't look like they're going to grant the waiver or respond."

Only Pennsylvania and Maryland formally requested fuel waivers from the EPA, but other states including Virginia were considering it after dozens of supply terminals and service stations ran dry.

Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich asked the EPA on April 26 for permission to waive the requirement to use reformulated gasoline in the Baltimore metro area and counties around Washington, D.C.

"This was a proactive measure taken by the (Gov. Ehrlich) administration," said Shareese DeLeaver, press secretary in the Maryland governor's office. "Because conditions have stabilized over the past week, most likely the request will be withdrawn."

The EPA on Friday said that the supply shortages in Maryland and Pennsylvania were improving.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine decided not to send his formal request for a waiver to the EPA "because in staff-to-staff discussions the EPA indicated they were not inclined to grant the waiver," said Kevin Hall, spokesman for the governor.

"The (specification) switch supply issue had eased significantly by late last week," Hall said.

The supply disruptions came as the oil industry phases out the water-polluting additive MTBE and replaces it with ethanol, government and industry sources said.

Gasoline mixed with ethanol is harder to handle than MTBE blends because it cannot be shipped by pipeline and must be carried in trucks or rail cars. In a letter responding to inquiries from two Virginia members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kaine cited an April 26 letter from EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, in which Johnson said that "the EPA, in consultation with the Department of Energy, must make a determination that there are extreme and unusual fuel or fuel additive supply circumstances before issuing a RFG gasoline waiver."

"The federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 also addressed EPA's authority to issue waivers of fuel standards," Kaine wrote. "The Act added a requirement that the supply shortage be the result of an Act of God, a pipeline or refinery equipment failure, or another event that could not reasonably have been foreseen or prevented and not the lack of prudent planning on the part of suppliers of the fuel or fuel additive to the state."

"EPA cannot issue a RFG waiver for disruptions that could have been planned for or based solely on high gasoline prices," Kaine said in the letter to Congresswomen Thelma Drake and Jo Ann Davis.

Drake and Davis had asked Kaine to petition the EPA for a temporary fuel waiver.

The environmentalist shut down all this Nations smokestack industries, Heavy manufacturing, and liberals wonder why there are no, so called, higher paying jobs.

You must have an education to obtain most jobs outside of the manufacturing sector. The American educational system has done a magnificent job.

The repeated mantra of off shoring of American jobs is Labor, I think not, EPA, EEOC, OSHA, Lawyers, Insurance, Taxes, Local regulation, Federal Regulations, on and on.

Kill the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs and we will all be equal, equally destitute.

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