Exxon Mobil’s U.S. oil refineries pump out far more lung-damaging soot than similarly-sized facilities operated by rivals, according to regulatory documents and a Reuters analysis of pollution test results.
The Texas-based firm’s three largest refineries - two in Texas and one in Louisiana - are the nation’s top three emitters of small particulate matter, according to the..
analysis of the latest tests submitted to regulators by the nation’s 10 largest refineries.The three Exxon refineries together averaged emissions of 80 pounds per hour, eight times the average rate of the seven other refineries on the top-ten list, some of which are larger than Exxon's plants, the analysis shows. The top polluter, Exxon's Baton Rouge refinery, averaged 138 pounds per hour. (See graphic tmsnrt.rs/3i4mU9j)
The performance reflects the firm’s inadequate spending to cut emissions, said Wilma Subra, a Louisiana-based scientist who formerly served on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
“Exxon has all the resources in the world to lower its pollution rates dramatically,” she said.
The company has taken heat for years for its environmental performance. This week, Exxon lost at least two seats on its board of directors to an activist hedge fund seeking to force the firm to reckon with climate change.
Exxon said in a statement that it tries to comply with environmental laws and has invested billions of dollars to reduce emissions over the last two decades.
Oil-and-gas pollution has a disproportionate impact on poor and minority communities, which are often located near industrial sites. Reuters interviewed nearly three dozen residents in the predominantly Black neighborhoods near Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery. About a third said they either had breathing problems or knew someone who did.
Small particulate matter is among the most harmful pollutants. Made up of particles 50 times smaller than a grain of sand, it can bond with other toxins, infiltrate the blood stream, and damage the heart, lungs and nervous system. A small increase in long-term exposure to small particulate matter also leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rates, according to a recent Harvard University study.
“Particulate matter pollution is deadly, but you’re not going to see it written on anyone’s tombstone,” said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group.
The EPA requires plants to restrict small particulate matter emissions to 1 pound or less for every 1,000 pounds of coke burned in a refinery’s catalytic cracking units.
But Exxon’s Baton Rouge plant is the only major U.S. refinery that doesn’t have to meet that standard because of an EPA rule that exempts “cat crackers” that were built before 1976 and haven’t been modified since.
Refineries also have to meet state standards for particulate-matter pollution. But those limits can vary widely among states - and among different facilities within states - based on the strictness of state regulators and whether a refinery has agreed to tighter limits to settle lawsuits. And Louisiana regulators allow much higher pollution levels at Exxon’s Baton Rouge plant than at other state refineries.
Exxon’s two big oil refineries in Texas – in Beaumont and Baytown – are also among the top three polluters identified by Reuters. But Exxon’s 517,000-barrel-per-day Baton Rouge plant produces far more soot.
The plant’s emissions of small particulate matter hit a peak of 350 pounds per hour during an independent test conducted in January 2020 by an engineering firm Exxon hired to demonstrate its regulatory compliance.
Emissions averaged 255 pounds per hour during the test. That exceeded a limit, imposed on the refinery by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), of 234 pounds per hour – one of the highest limits in the country, according to regulatory documents. Other similarly-sized refineries in Louisiana and other states have state soot emissions limits closer to 50 pounds per hour.
The LDEQ declined to comment on the pollution limits it sets for Exxon’s Baton Rouge plant.
Exxon officials blamed the refinery’s high emissions on low water pressure in its 1970s-era wet gas scrubber, according to company correspondence with the LDEQ. Exxon told the state it had since resolved the issue.
Maintenance on such scrubbers, commonly used to control pollution, can lower emissions but requires shutting down a cat cracker for several weeks, hurting profitability, according to Exxon disclosures to the LDEQ. Completely new systems can cost more than $1 billion.
Because the Baton Rouge refinery’s two catalytic crackers were built during World War Two – among the first such units in the country – they are exempt from federal EPA standards.
Big refineries run by Exxon’s rivals are doing much better at controlling soot. Ironically, many of them are using technology invented and licensed by Exxon, according to disclosures by Exxon and environmental regulators.
Specialists in ndustrial pollution say the differences in performance can be attributed to any of a number of factors: rivals’ equipment could be newer; maintenance schedules may be more frequent; and refining processes before wet gas scrubbing may also be optimized to reduce soot.
All of that takes money. In many cases, it also takes lawsuits.
Companies such as BP plc, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy Corp have made agreements with the EPA in recent years to slash emissions below federal standards to help settle pollution-related litigation, regulatory disclosures show.
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