Environment America, Inc. d/b/a Environment Texas v. Pasadena Refining System, Inc.

On July 26, 2018, two environmental groups and the owner of a refinery in Texas filed a proposed consent decree in the federal district court for the Southern District of Texas to resolve the environmental groups’ Clean Air Act citizen suit. On July 31, the court granted the parties’ joint motion for entry of the consent decree, but the effective date of the consent decree was subsequently stayed until September 14, 2018 to allow EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice to review it. The proposed consent decree requires payment of a $350,000 civil penalty as well as a $3,175,000 payment to be used for a “Vehicle Emission Reduction Fund” that will disburse grants for projects to reduce mobile source emissions in nearby communities, including for replacing vehicles with zero emission or near-zero emission vehicles and for electric vehicle infrastructure. The consent decree also requires that the defendant revise its Hurricane Shutdown and Startup Plan to minimize emission of air contaminants and to require a review of “lessons learned” as a result of any plant-wide shutdown necessitated by a hurricane.