FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 10, 2000

Contact: Rick Abraham, Texans United Education Fund,
         (713) 869-0774 
         Robert Phillips, PACE Intl. Union, 
         (713) 534-8185

PASADENA, TEXAS--Crown Central Petroleum, which paid the highest air pollution fine in Texas history, is in trouble again because of pollution violations discovered recently during a Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) investigation. At a news conference today in front of the Crown refinery in Pasadena, Texas, environmentalists from Texans United, PACE union members and a former Harris County prosecutor criticized the company and government agencies for allowing Crown's air pollution violations to continue.

Environmentalists and union members released More Dirty Business, a report jointly prepared by Texans United Education Fund and PACE. The report detailed Crown's continuing violations and increases in pollution since the company locked out its union members in 1996 and replaced them with temporary contract workers.

Crown has continued the same pollution violations the TNRCC gave it a $1.05 million air pollution fine for in August 1998. The new violations spell trouble for Crown, whose dismal history of non-compliance is well documented. TNRCC commissioners also warned that economic benefit would be calculated into penalties associated with the new violations.

The agency's penalty calculations for the violations cited in just one of five inspections under review by the TNRCC totals $584,400. An additional penalty of more than $2.35 million was calculated for Crown's economic benefit from just one of the violations which could be assessed if it is determined that Crown needs a back-up Sulfur Recovery Unit as refinery experts and county officials insisted.

Crown exceeded federal pollution limits for hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide for more than 15,000 hours from May 1992 through March 1998. During that time, Crown released more than 1,000 tons of excess sulfur dioxide into the nearby community, exposing residents to dangerous and overpowering odors.

Instead of assessing a larger fine in 1998 for these and other violations, the TNRCC gave Crown a stern warning that "increased penalties" would result from "future violations." The most serious violations for which Crown was fined in 1998 have been repeated, despite TNRCC warnings and company assurances. A long list of federal and state violations found during agency inspections are now under review. More than 74 tons of sulfur dioxide was released to the air over a 10-day period in 1999. In another three-day period, Crown released 41 tons of sulfur dioxide.

The most serious violations recently cited by the state agency involve Clean Air Act standards for hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. These are the same violations as those alleged by citizens in their various lawsuits against Crown. They also are among those cited by the EPA and forwarded to the Department of Justice for civil action. The federal government has reserved the right to prosecute Crown for the old and the new violations committed by the company.

The TNRCC has received widespread criticism since 1998 because the penalty it imposed on Crown that year failed to include the amount of economic benefit the company gained from breaking the law. Based on TNRCC's own penalty policy, the amount should have been between $10 million and $20 million. TNRCC made it profitable for Crown to pollute, according to Texans United, who took both TNRCC and Crown to court.

The TNRCC also has been criticized for refusing to set a deadline for Crown to comply with the law. "The TNRCC gave Crown permission to pollute and allowed them to profit from their violations," said Texans United Director Rick Abraham. "Government officials would never allow their own families and communities to be subjected to the same levels of pollution." Texans United and the Sierra Club filed a formal civil rights complaint against the TNRCC, charging the agency with discrimination in its permitting and enforcement practices. The neighborhoods closest to Crown have many low income and Hispanic families.

"Crown is an habitual corporate outlaw that poisons the people in the city with the worst air pollution in the nation," said Terry O'Rourke, a former senior assistant Harris County and Texas assistant attorney general, environmental protection division. "It is time for the corporate death penalty. We need to pull the plug on this habitual lawbreaker." Many citizens have accused the TNRCC of going easy on Crown because the company won favor with Governor George W. Bush. Crown was one of the first ten companies to sign on to Governor Bush's "voluntary compliance" program for "grand-fathered" facilities. Crown and a host of other polluters have contributed to the campaigns of Governor Bush, the man who gave the TNRCC commissioners their jobs. Crown's continued violations will no doubt strengthen the case for citizens' federal Clean Air Act lawsuit, which a U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated. The Department of Justice supported Texans United in that appeal. Citizens also have filed a $50 million damage lawsuit against Crown, independent of agency enforcement actions. PACE continues its boycott against Crown Central Petroleum gasoline in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Numerous religious, civil rights, environmental and labor groups, along with public officials, have endorsed the boycott. More information on the Crown lockout may be obtained at www.crownboycott.org. Copies of the 26-page report can be obtained by calling (713) 534-8185. PACE, based in Nashville, Tenn., represents 320,000 workers in the paper, chemical, energy, atomic and automotive supply industries.