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newsrel -- BP pays $1 million in fines for violations of California clean air regulations

Posted: 27 May 2009 11:45:21
Fuel providers subject to stringent clean air regulations. 

Release 09-50
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 27, 2009
	  	  	
Dimitri Stanich
916-322-2990
www.arb.ca.gov

BP pays $1 million in fines for violations of California clean
air regulations

Procedural errors led to infractions

SACRAMENTO: The Air Resources Board announced today that it has
fined BP West Coast Products over $1 million for 17 violations of
California's clean air regulations relating to fuels.

Most of the violations were clerical errors that led to
inaccurate reporting to enforcement officials. While the mistakes
did not lead to increased emissions, the state depends on
accurate accounting to assure that more serious errors do not
occur.

"The large fine reflects the number of smaller violations and
the size of BP's role in California's energy market," said ARB
Chairman Mary D. Nichols. "Seemingly small mistakes can have
major consequences and accurate accounting is crucial to
protecting public health."

BP's violations, found by enforcement officials examining
operations and BP informing ARB of errors, included misreporting
the characteristics of fuel brought into the state, failures to
appropriately report the shipping and unloading of fuel, and
shipping fuel to California that did not meet evaporative
emission standards. BP violations consisted of:

    * Eight violations of shipping fuel that violated
evaporative emission standard ($435,000);
    * Two failures to appropriately notify ARB of discharging of
fuel ($30,000);
    * One failure to add appropriate deposit-control additives
($440,000);
    * Four citations for shipping of fuel that did not match BP
documentation of blend ($110,000);
    * One violation of excess ethanol ($3,000); and,
    * One violation of excess sulfur ($80,000). 

Fuel suppliers must account for the chemical characteristics of
all fuel they bring into the state, clearly map the distribution
of the fuel and advise the state of that schedule.

California's fuel supply system will undergo radical changes as
the industry prepares to comply with the recently adopted low
carbon fuel standard. The regulation, adopted in April, calls for
the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from California's
transportation fuels by ten percent by 2020. The new regulation
is aimed at diversifying the variety of fuels used for
transportation, boosting the market for alternative-fuel vehicles
and achieve 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emission
reductions by 2020.

The Air Resources Board is a department of the California
Environmental Protection Agency. ARB's mission is to promote and
protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through
effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and
considering effects on the economy. The ARB oversees all air
pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain
health based air quality standards.

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