BP Pays Hefty Federal Fines
Tuesday October 30, 2007
Petroleum giant BP has suffered a record-setting bad run with U.S. government regulations.
- BP agreed to pay $7 million in fines to settle self-reported violations of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) capacity release policies. In the most serious violation, BP admitted to "flipping," a "deliberate strategy for evading FERC regulations that require posting and competitive bidding for discounted long-term releases of capacity."
But federal regulators were just getting warmed up.
- BP agreed to pay $303 million to settle charges for propane market manipulation. The fine was the largest market manipulation settlement in the history of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
- BP was fined $370 million for environmental crimes and fraud stemming from a March 25, 2005 fatal explosion at it's Texas City, Texas refinery.
And, last, but far from least:
- BP was fined a record $460 million by the EPA for a felony Clean Air Act violation resulting from the Texas City refinery explosion. BP agreed to plead guilty to charges that the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbon vapor and liquid in the explosion caused the deaths of 15 employees at the refinery.
"This case demonstrates one of the pillars of environmental enforcement: protecting human lives and health," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Ronald J. Tenpas in a Justice Department press release. "BP cut corners with disastrous consequences and is being held to account."
Comments
Please check your facts – nearly every dollar amount you have quoted is erroneous.
According to the links in the story, directly to the regulatory agencies involved, the figures are correct. The same figures have also been widely reported elsewhere.
I think that the previous post related to the fact that you have triple-counted most of BP’s fines and therefore the figures are grossly inaccurate.
The fines actually total nearer $380million and not your quoted $1.1billion!!
If you had taken five minutes to check the links in your own story, you would have realised this…. very disappointng.
Please either take this misleading story down or correct it.