Reiner Urges Criminal Penalties for Polluters

Major oil companies have deliberately and repeatedly violated California’s air pollution laws and should face stiff criminal penalties, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said in a letter released Friday.

The letter, mailed to the state’s 58 district attorneys, urged their support of pending legislation that would establish or substantially increase criminal sanctions for air polluters.

Under the new bill, introduced by Assemblyman Robert J. Campbell (D-Richmond), corporate officers convicted of polluting the air could, in the worst cases, go to state prison for up to three years and face fines of up to $50,000, a Reiner spokeswoman said. Current law provides for no criminal penalties in some cases and jail terms of only six months in others.

“It is evident,” Reiner wrote, “. . . that these large oil companies are deliberately and repeatedly violating California’s air pollution laws. They are polluting the air without fear of legal consequences because the only consequence--if and when they are caught--is a mere fine.”

Seven Companies Listed

In his letter, Reiner listed seven oil companies that in recent years have been cited by local courts and civil authorities in Southern California for repeated violations of existing pollution laws that prohibit the release of hydrocarbons into the air.

The companies named are Shell Oil Co. (30 violations); Mobil Oil Corp. (28); Chevron Corp. (25); Union Oil Co. of California (25); Texaco Inc. (19); Fletcher Oil Co. (14), and Gulf Oil Corp. (8).

“A fine, no matter how substantial, is just simply a cost of doing business,” Reiner told reporters Friday. “They discharge these toxins into the air for the simple reason that it involves some expense, perhaps significant, to operate their facilities in such a manner that they don’t violate the law, and if they violate the law, they save that cost.”

Spokesmen for Chevron, Mobil and Union Oil said Friday that, contrary to Reiner’s assertions, their companies have never deliberately broken air pollution laws. Spokesmen for the other oil companies could not be reached.

“We do our levelheaded best to meet the spirit and letter of the law. We certainly wouldn’t do anything deliberately in the nature of what Mr. Reiner is saying,” said G. Michael Marcy, a spokesman for Chevron Corp., which operates a 405,000-barrel-a-day refinery in El Segundo.

‘Politically Motivated’

Thomas Collins, a spokesman for Mobil United States Marketing and Refining Division, a unit of Mobil Oil Corp., called the release of Reiner’s letter “a politically motivated publicity stunt.”

He added: “When you operate any large industrial facility, such as an oil refinery, there will be from time to time inadvertent mishaps such as equipment failures. However, to conclude from those operating mishaps that there is a deliberate or repeated act to violate any law is simply absurd.”

Barry Lane, spokesman for Unocal Corp., parent of Union Oil Co. of California, said: “As a company policy, we do endeavor to comply with all laws and regulations at all times. The decisions we make with regard to compliance are not driven by the level of penalties. The company policy is to comply with the law.”

The bill supported by Reiner will come before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing Tuesday. It would for the first time impose criminal sanctions of up to six months in County Jail for the illegal discharge into the air of any toxic material. Current law provides only for a civil penalty of a maximum $10,000 fine.

The legislation would also allow prosecutors to charge as felonies certain air pollution violations now classified as misdemeanors. The criminal penalties for those offenses would increase from a maximum of six months in county jail to three years in state prison, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Diana A. Bell.