CONSILIENCE PRODUCTIONS | "dialogue BEYOND music" | Earth Blog and Forum | Citgo found guilty of breaking Clean Air Act Law

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July 18, 2007 5:57 PM

Bobby Kennedy Jr. of GoLeft TV and Air America's Ring of Fire talks with Suzie Canales, the director of Citizens for Environmental Justice about the recent Citgo trial in Texas, where Citgo was found guilty of environmental abuses:

Citgo was found guilty in federal court on June 27th of operating two open-air storage tanks at a Corpus Christi refinery without proper emission controls:

The jury found Citgo Petroleum Corp. and its subsidiary, Citgo Refining and Chemicals Co., guilty of operating Tanks 116 and 117 between 1993 and 2004 as oil/water separators without roofs, required by federal regulations to limit the amount of air pollution.
This is the first case of a refiner to actually go to trial on criminal charges since the Clean Air Act of 1970 was enacted.

The first since 1970? It's taken 37 years for a refinery to be taken to court? Well, if you listen to the interview above, you'll learn that normally these big oil companies settle out of court because it's cheaper and they can keep secret all of the evidence against them. Apparently, Citgo thought that they would be found not-guilty, so they went for it. Citgo attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said as much: "We thought the jury was with us all the way," DeGuerin said. "We are planning to appeal."

You can bet Citgo's bottom-line that they'll be appealing...