TCEQ Orders $20 Billion Corporation to Pay $21,900 Repeat Offender Fine
Advocates support the enforcement action, but point to how state law limits real accountability for corporate polluters
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) today ordered Lyondell Chemical to pay a $21,900 repeat offender fine for air permit violations at the multinational conglomerate’s facility in the Harris County community of Channelview.
The TCEQ has proposed allocating half of the fine toward a supplemental environmental project (SEP) — an investment intended to provide environmental benefits to the impacted community. The proposed SEP isn’t in Channelview. It’s for Barbers Hill Independent School District, located in a neighboring community that is wealthier and whiter than Channelview.
The company’s Channelview facility has had 28 unauthorized air emission events since 2020, including three this year. Today’s penalty is for violations found in May and June of 2024.
“Lyondell has a market capitalization of $20 billion and can shrug off comparatively small fines over and over. These almost symbolic fines shift the real penalty from the corporation to communities like Channelview, whose working-class residents pay for it with their health,” said Kathryn Guerra, director of Public Citizen’s TCEQ Watchdog campaign.“The fine for this latest incident is approximately what Lyondell Chemical’s CEO makes in compensation by lunchtime every single day. It will continue to be business as usual for polluters in Texas until the Legislature imposes real consequences for a corporation’s bottom line.”
Texas lawmakers have been unwilling to impose significant financial consequences on corporations. In 2023, as part of the state’s Sunset Review process, lawmakers approved raising the maximum fine for polluters, but only marginally, and only in narrow circumstances, from $25,000 to $40,000 per day.
“Today, the TCEQ Commissioners did the bare minimum of what they are legally allowed to do. Granting reductions from the total possible penalty only emphasizes that there are no economic or other consequences for polluting our environment,” said Carolyn Stone, a longtime resident of Channelview and founder of the Channelview Health Improvement Coalition, who was at today’s TCEQ hearing. “Communities like Channelview need an environmental regulator equipped with laws that have teeth and provide meaningful penalties with real consequences that deter bad behavior. As for the SEP, I don’t know why they gave it to Barbers Hill ISD. We’re the ones harmed by Lyondell Chemical’s pollution.”
Advocates have also called for wide-ranging reforms to the TCEQ, including increased on-site inspections of repeat offenders, such as Lyondell’s Channelview facility, which has not had an on-site inspection in over two years.