Overview

• The Supreme Court declined to consider Exxon’s appeal of a $14.25 million civil penalty for Clean Air Act violations at its Baytown, Texas, refinery.
• U.S. District Judge David Hittner originally imposed a $19.95 million fine in 2017, which the 5th Circuit remanded and led to a revised $14.25 million award upheld in 2021.
• That penalty is the largest ever levied in a citizen-initiated Clean Air Act lawsuit enforcing federal pollution limits.
• Environment Texas and the Sierra Club launched the suit in 2010, alleging the facility routinely exceeded emission limits for carcinogenic and ozone-forming chemicals.
• Exxon had argued the plaintiffs lacked standing under a stricter standard and urged the Court to overturn its 2000 Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw decision.