ExxonMobil Gets Record €3.3-Million Penalty for Not Reporting CO2 from Scottish Plant

 
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ExxonMobil either slipped up big time recently by not reporting approximately 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its Scottish Fife Ethylene Plant. As a result, the oil giant has been hit with a record €3.3-million fine (€3,296,600 to be exact).

The fine came from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

“An Exxon spokesman told BusinessGreen the under-reported emissions accounted for just under five per cent of the site’s total and that the error had been caused by ‘incorrect mapping of routings’,” Jessica Shanleman reports.

Under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), companies get hit with a €100 fine for each tonne of CO2 emissions not reported.

The Exxon spokesman “added that the mistake was immediately reported when it was spotted and that the company has now fully reviewed and improved its procedures to avoid a repeat of the mistake.”

WWF Scotland notes that the fine is the highest financial penalty, by far, of any environmental offense in British history.

“It is very embarrassing for a company as well resourced as ExxonMobil to have to admit that they can’t fill in forms properly, let alone to get fined nearly £3m for their mistake,” said WWF Scotland director Richard Dixon.

“This is the biggest, but there have been other examples of companies under-reporting their contribution to climate change. The whole point of the European trading scheme is to limit the total climate pollution coming from industry, so it is quite right that fines should be high for those who fail to comply.”

The €3.3 million are to be used by the Scottish government for some environmental projects.

Source: BusinessGreen
Image: ExxonMobil sign via beelaineo

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