Mobil Drops Its Objections to Opening Environmental Report

The Mobil Corp. dropped its objections Thursday to unsealing confidential environmental assessment reports on 17 chemical plants, which had been filed in connection with a lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey.

Valcar Bowman Jr., once the second-ranking environmental official for Mobil’s chemical subsidiary, alleged he was wrongfully fired in 1986 because he refused to participate in covering up environmental problems at plants in Bakersfield and elsewhere.

He accused Mobil Chemical Co.’s attorneys of attempting to alter environmental assessment reports produced by his staff to downplay violations at Mobil chemical plants throughout the United States.

In objecting to making the reports public, Mobil argued last month that their release would discourage employees from being candid in their assessments.

While continuing to assert that the release of the reports “is not in the public interest,” Mobil lawyer Ron Neill said in a statement the oil company would not appeal a decision by U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman on Dec. 23 to unseal them. Ackerman stayed his order to release the documents after Mobil said it intended to appeal.

But on Thursday, Neill said: “Mobil is anxious to get on with the trial. Mobil has nothing to hide, and, in fact, the environmental self-audits give the plants high marks for environmental compliance.”