ExxonMobil, PG&E fined for violating greenhouse gas reporting rule
Nine companies have been fined for filing late or inadequate reports about their greenhouse gas emissions as required by the state, California air regulators announced.
The companies included Exxon Mobil Corp., which was fined $120,000 for filing late and inaccurate data on its Torrance refinery and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which agreed to pay $20,000 for delays in reporting emissions it generates as a natural gas supplier.
Cement manufacturers, oil companies and gas plant operators were among the other companies whose fines were made public last week by the California Air Resources Board.
The shortcomings were in violation of the agency’s mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rule adopted in 2007 to ensure the integrity of California’s cap-and-trade program to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
The rule requires industrial facilities to file annual greenhouse gas emissions reports if they release more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the main gas that is driving global warming.
“We have to know how much we’re reducing, and you can’t know that without knowing what all the largest producers are pumping into the air,” said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the Air Resources Board. “So we’ve been really stringent and even punctilious about this. There’s a lot that hangs on accurate reporting.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a proposal to require companies nationwide to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Industry has warned the Obama administration that such a requirement could force them to reveal trade secrets.
The companies fined by California regulators are:
Exxon Mobil Oil Corp. $120,000
DG Fairhaven Power $55,000
Vintage Production California $35,000
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. $20,000
Veneco Inc. $20,000
Cemex Construction Materials $15,000
Lehigh Southwest Cement Co. $10,000
Lhoist North America of Arizona Inc. $10,000
Tidelands Production Co. $10,000
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