The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced Aug. 12 that BP has agreed to pay a $50.6 million penalty for safety violations related to the 2005 explosion at its Texas City, TX, refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others. In addition to the fine, BP has also agreed to allocate about $500 million to address unsafe conditions at the refinery.
Americans overwhelmingly support government protection of the environment and consumers, a series of new polls shows. The findings come as efforts to enforce and expand regulation face increasingly hostile rhetoric from conservatives and industry representatives in Washington.
On July 21, a federal district court judge in Alaska issued an order halting all oil and gas activities in more than 29 million acres of the Chukchi Sea. The order said that the former Minerals Management Service (MMS) failed to adequately consider the environmental impacts of potential natural gas production in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The National Mining Association (NMA) filed a