Phillips 66
With a long history of violating the Clean Air Act and recently acquiring DCP Midstream, another fossil gas producer with a history of environmental violations for $3.8 billion. Phillips 66 prides itself on being recognized as one of the main crude oil and refineries companies in both the US and Europe. It gathers, processes, transports, stores, and markets fossil gas liquids (NGLs). It also manufactures petrochemicals, and plastics and markets lubricants under the brands Phillips 66, Kendall, and Redline brands.
The company has a presence in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa and it is headquartered in the bayou city of Houston, Texas. The company currently operates 11 facilities in the US, making it "an essential" supplier of refined products with the capacity to refine 2.2 million barrels of oil per day in both the U.S. and Europe.
Curious fact
Even though Phillips 66 doesn't only do refining, the company categorizes itself as such since refining has been the company's biggest moneymaker. [1]
Background
The current version of Phillips 66 started in 2012 when oil giant ConocoPhillips spun it off. Its predecessor, though, dates back to 1875 when Isaav Blake started the Continental Oil and Transportation Co to sell kerosene in San Francisco, CA. Eventually, Conoco merged with Phillips in 2002. Phillips Petroleum Company got its start in 1917 in Oklahoma.
Inverstors and Partners
Warren Buffet, the chairperson of Berkshire Hathaway; was the company's biggest investor and top shareholder. Warren at one point owned more than 80 million shares that were valued at more than $6 billion, making it the seventh-largest stock holding.
Enviromental Litigations
Texas
With a record of air pollution just like its recent purchase of DCP Midstream; Phillips facilitates located at or near Cedar Bayou, Port Arthur, and Sweeny have violated multiple Clean Air Act and Texas state air pollution requirements while burning off their waste gases. The joint Chevron and Phillips facilities were asked to pay an estimated $118 million to reduce air pollution from flares at the plants, and a $3.4 million penalty to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.[2] The company regularly "oversteamed" the flared and failed to comply with other key operating constraints to ensure volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants contained in the gases routed to the flares are efficiently combusted. [3]
According to EPA, The Sweeny Refinery in Old Ocean and The Borger Refinery have failed to comply with recordkeeping, reporting, sampling, and testing requirements; which were discovered during facility inspections and through a review of the company's records where it was found their fuel doesn't meet the applicable standards and could lead to an increase in emission of harmful pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds and cancer-causing air toxics.[4]
The Bluewater Texas Terminal
Phillips was denied a permit by the EPA for an offshore oil terminal after several environmental groups flagged pollution risks of 19,000 tons per year of Volatile Organic Compounds ("VOCs"), 833 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants ("HAPs), and the potential impact they would've had on the lower-income communities in the area (Frontlines). The terminal was expected to transport 384 million barrels of crude oil per year on large tanker ships on the Gulf Coast near Corpus Christi, TX. [5]
According to the letter drafted by Environmental Integrity, the EPA's proposal to authorize Bluewater's Oil Terminal without requiring add-on controls to reduce VOC and HAP emissions would allow the construction and operation of a super-emitting source without rival; therefore becoming the largest source of VOC and benzene by a wide margin and resulting in a violation of the Clean Air Act since it would've accounted for double the amount emitted in the area of San Patricio County, Harbor Island, Aransas Pass and the coastal wetlands and barrier islands in the Gulf-of-Mexico. [6]
The environmental and community groups objecting to the permit were the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Economy Coalition of Corpus Christi, Indigenous People of the Coastal Bend, Ingleside on the Bay Coastal Watch Association, Environment Texas, Public Citizen, Texas Campaign for the Environment, Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation.
Quick fact on HAPs
HAPs which stands for Hazardous air pollutants; contain the carcinogen 'Benzene' which causes acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), multiple myeloma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It has been denominated by The National Toxicology Program, EPA, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as "carcinogenic to humans" - if the permit for Bluewater had been approved, 66 tons per year would've been emitted. [7]
California
In April of 2020, Earthjustice in San Francisco filed a citizen complaint against Phillips 66 in Los Angeles federal court on behalf of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, an environmental health and justice organization based in Commerce. The intent to sue was for a "repeated and ongoing" violation of state pollution laws at the company's Wilmington and Carson refineries.
The organizations said the petroleum refineries exposed nearby communities that were already at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus to hundreds of tons of known carcinogens, leading to "increased cancer and other health risks" and in doing so, violating the Clean Air Act.[8]
Sources
- ↑ https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/06/how-phillips-66-makes-most-of-its-money.aspx
- ↑ https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/UnitedStatesofAmericavChevronPhillipsChemicalCompanyLPDocketNo422?doc_id=X1D2K19GN0M8VRA8DH9MSHMACRL
- ↑ https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chevron-phillips-chemical-company-agrees-reduce-harmful-air-pollution-three-us-chemical
- ↑ https://www.cspdailynews.com/fuels/phillips-66-pay-500000-over-clean-air-act-violations
- ↑ https://pgjonline.com/news/2022/september/epa-denies-permit-for-phillips-66-trafiguras-bluewater-terminal-near-corpus-christi
- ↑ hhttps://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20210111-Bluewater-Terminal-Air-Permit-Comments.pdf
- ↑ https://www.cancer.org/healthy/cancer-causes/chemicals/benzene.html#:~:text=IARC%20classifies%20benzene%20as%20%E2%80%9Ccarcinogenic,%2C%20and%20non%2DHodgkin%20lymphoma.
- ↑ https://regionalassociations.org/earthjustice-to-sue-phillips-66/