ExxonMobil fined $5.7 mn for not disclosing carbon dioxide emissions

SCOTLAND, UK: ExxonMobil was fined £2.8m ($5.7 million) for failing to report carbon dioxide emissions from its Mosmorran chemical plant in Fife. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said there had been no direct environmental impact. The fine, believed to be the biggest ever in UK, dates to 2010 but the details have only just been published. The money has been passed to the Scottish government to fund a series of environmental projects. ExxonMobil said it regretted the errors, which were reported as soon as they were identified.

In its 2008 report to Sepa the company failed to account for 33,000 tonne of carbon dioxide from its ethylene plant in Mosmorran and Sepa issued the fine in 2010. Details only came to light in a report published by Sepa last week. Sepa said the fine was a civil penalty and it was not required to carry out an investigation or report the matter to the procurator fiscal. The agency said the penalty was a mandatory consequence of breaching the EU emissions trading scheme.