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CITGO Global Refinery Settlement

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a comprehensive Clean Air Act settlement with CITGO. The settlement is expected to reduce harmful air emissions by more than 30,000 tons per year from six petroleum refineries in five states that represent nearly 5 percent of total refining capacity in the United States.

A consent decree, filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, will require CITGO to spend an estimated $320 million to install and implement state-of-the-art control technologies to reduce emissions at its refineries. CITGO's actions under this agreement are expected to reduce annual emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) by more than 7,184 tons and sulfur dioxide (SO2) by more than 23,250 tons. The agreement will also require reductions of volatile organic compounds and other hazardous air pollutants at all CITGO refineries. The air pollutants addressed by the agreement can cause serious respiratory problems and exacerbate cases of childhood asthma. The states of Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey and Georgia are joining the settlement, which is part of EPA's national effort to reduce air emissions from refineries.

The proposed consent decree is subject to a public comment period, and final court approval. For more information on the Petroleum Refinery Initiative, go to: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/oil/index.html.

Enforcement Priorities

For additional information, contact:

Patrick W. Foley
Senior Environmental Engineer
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2242A)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20460-0001
(202) 564-7978
foley.patrick@epa.gov

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