Phillips 66 polluted L.A.'s water. Trump won't prosecute
That's the oil company with ads all over Dodger Stadium.
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In the final months of Joe Biden’s presidency, federal prosecutors charged oil giant Phillips 66 with several crimes, accusing the Houston company of violating the Clean Water Act by dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of dirty wastewater from its Los Angeles County oil refinery into the local sewer system.
I took a special interest because Phillips enjoys a cozy relationship with the Dodgers, of whom I am a die-hard fan. Orange-and-blue logos advertising the oil company’s 76 gasoline brand loom large at Dodger Stadium; there’s also a storage tank painted with a Dodgers logo at the Phillips refinery. Like other oil companies that sponsor baseball teams, Phillips is using America’s national pastime to sanitize its corporate image.
Anyway, Phillips was scheduled to stand trial for its alleged crimes last month. But in a last-minute twist, the company reached a deferred prosecution agreement — kind of like a settlement — with the Trump administration.
The parties agreed to postpone trial until 2029. At that point, the case will most likely be dropped, allowing Phillips to avoid criminal penalties altogether.
“As an environmentalist and a former prosecutor, I don’t like this,” said Erina Kwon, a senior attorney at the nonprofit advocacy group LA Waterkeeper.
Indeed, when I learned about the deal — which has gone largely unnoticed since it was filed in court nearly two months ago — my first reaction was to wonder whether President Trump’s Department of Justice was letting Phillips off the hook with a slap on the wrist. This administration loves doing favors for fossil fuel companies, after all. What’s more, the deal was signed by an especially notorious Trump appointee: Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who represented Trump in the hush money trial that led to his conviction on 34 felony counts.
Still, reading the agreement made me question whether it was so bad.
Phillips paid an $8 million fine, which sounded significant, given that the original news coverage referenced just $2.4 million in possible fines should the company be convicted. The oil giant also agreed to follow a Clean Water Act compliance plan at eight refineries in other states, which sounded logical, since Phillips recently closed the local refinery where the alleged crimes occurred. Under the deferred prosecution agreement, the feds will move to dismiss the case in 2029, so long as Phillips follows the compliance plan.
Was this a good outcome? I needed to ask a lawyer.
It took me a few weeks to find someone with the right expertise (and time to read the 53-page agreement). My first hit was Jennifer Novak, a former deputy attorney general for the state of California. She now represents companies in manufacturing and other industries, focusing on environmental law.
Novak thought the whole thing seemed straightforward: Phillips 66 broke the law and was motivated to avoid trial. She said the deal looked fair.
“I don’t find it all that unusual or unreasonable,” she said.
Although the Clean Water Act compliance plan didn’t strike her as anything special, she did like a provision requiring a third-party auditor.
“You have somebody who isn’t the federal government and isn’t the company coming in to monitor, and potentially calling things out,” she said.
LA Waterkeeper’s Kwon had a totally different analysis.
Kwon previously served as a deputy district attorney in L.A. County. She noted that not only did Phillips 66 dump highly contaminated wastewater twice, it failed to tell the county on both occasions.
“While ordinary negligence may explain the non-compliant discharges, knowingly failing to report the discharge to [L.A. County] is much more serious and smacks of bad faith,” Kwon said in an email.
Kwon wasn’t impressed by the Clean Water Act compliance plan, saying it mirrored the company’s existing obligations. As for the $8 million penalty, she said it appeared to be calculated based on a legal standard allowing a polluter to be fined up to “twice the gross gain” resulting from its violations. Which made her want to know: What did the company gain from its violations? In other words, how much money might it have saved by delaying expenditures that would have prevented the pollution?
The agreement doesn’t say. We don’t know how the $8 million fine was calculated.
All of which makes it hard to determine whether the Trump administration is playing fair or letting Phillips 66 off the hook.
Kwon called the assistant U.S. attorneys working the case “stand-up prosecutors.” She said it was unclear whether they had decided that a deferred prosecution was the right course of action, or whether a political appointee had interfered with their work.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. A Phillips 66 spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
One thing’s for sure: In two weeks, I’ll be back at Dodger Stadium for Opening Day, cheering on the World Series champions and staring at those darned 76 logos.
The refinery is gone, but the stench remains.
Iran, oil and electric vehicles
I don’t have anything terribly insightful to say about Trump’s war on Iran, except to amplify what Bill McKibben keeps writing in his wonderful newsletter, The Crucial Years: A world fueled by oil is inherently unstable and prone to price shocks; a world powered by clean electrons is cheap and freeing and much, much safer.
A few stories about the war-fueled energy crisis:
The Trump administration is using the war to justify oil drilling off the coast of California. (Clara Harter, L.A. Times)
Rising gas prices could give the slowing EV market a much-needed jolt. (Caroline Petrow-Cohen and Blanca Begert, L.A. Times)
Thanks to Gavin Newsom, California has the power to cap oil refinery profits and curb gas prices. So why isn’t it using those powers? (Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters)
In other oil and EV news:
U.S. car companies keep saying they need to shift to EVs or they’ll be killed by China — and yet they keep shifting more resources to pickup trucks, SUVs and muscle cars. (Keith Naughton and David Welch, Bloomberg)
The California city of Benicia has long been defined by a Valero oil refinery. What happens after the refinery shuts down in April? (Matthew Green, the Guardian)
Turns out electric vehicle batteries are lasting years longer than experts originally expected. Awesome! (Camila Domonoske, NPR)
As California and the West heat up, Tom Steyer talks climate
Kudos to HEATED’s Emily Atkin for this interview with billionaire climate advocate and California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. It was fascinating to watch Emily press Steyer on whether a billionaire can be trusted to lead California — and whether it’s ethical for billionaires to exist at all.
I had a chance to interview Steyer, among other leading candidates for governor, at a climate forum earlier this year. You can watch the full video here.
Also see this piece for my detailed analysis of the candidates: Steyer, Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell. (That’s one of the few stories I’ve put behind a paywall — another reason to consider a paid subscription!)
Broadly speaking, I think Steyer has made a compelling case for loosening the grip of the big utility companies and giving Californians greater ability to generate their own electricity with solar panels. A few relevant headlines:
Virginia will become the second state to let households install do-it-yourself, balcony solar panels. Is California next? (Elizabeth Ouzts, Canary Media)
Electric utilities across the country see balcony solar on the rise. In many places, they’re trying to stop it. (Jeff Brady, NPR)
Oregon failed to advance several big climate bills, including “polluters pay” and balcony solar legislation. (Gosia Wozniacka, the Oregonian)
California continues to be a terrible laggard at community solar relative to other states, thanks to the Public Utilities Commission. (Blanca Begert, L.A. Times)
If Californians need a reminder of why climate should be top of mind come election time, the next few weeks will offer a reminder. It’s going to be scorching.
Actually, it’s already been scorching — here and across the Western U.S.:
It was so hot during the L.A. Marathon in early March that organizers let people bail at mile 18 and still get a medal. (Alissa Walker, Torched)
Phoenix just concluded its warmest winter on record — by three whole degrees (breaking last year’s record). Albuquerque and Salt Lake City also set records, as did nine states. (Sara Tonks and Jonathan Erdman, the Weather Channel)
Palm Springs is forecast to hit 104 degrees on Wednesday, which would break the daily record by nine degrees. L.A. could also see triple digits next week, which has never happened in March. (Ben Noll, Washington Post)
In other heat-related news, the Athletic’s Henry Bushnell reports that FIFA will allow TV broadcasters to cut to commercials during mandatory “hydration breaks” — made necessary by global heating — during this year’s World Cup. Which means the climate crisis isn’t all bad: It’s creating more opportunities for advertising.
In other news
Climate backsliding:
New York Governor Kathy Hochul wants to delay the state’s longstanding target of cutting emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. (Marie J. French, Politico)
Nevada’s biggest electric utility projects it won’t reach 50% clean energy by 2030 — a mandate that was added to the state constitution by voters — because data centers will require so much electricity, and because Trump is making it so hard to build solar farms. (Amy Alonzo, the Nevada Independent)
Arizona Republicans repealed the state’s meager renewable energy requirements. (Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ)
Water in the West:
Nevada is so frustrated and worried over the lack of progress on Colorado River negotiations that it’s broken from the other Lower Basin states and proposed its own solution. (Alan Halaly, Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Yes, alfalfa is a problem in the Colorado River Basin. But it’s not the problem that needs to be solved right now. (Jonathan P. Thompson, the Land Desk)
Climate in the courts:
The Trump administration is suing California to undo vehicle pollution rules that are nearly 15 years old. (Blanca Begert, L.A. Times)
Eighteen young Californians appealed a judge’s dismissal of their climate lawsuit against the EPA. They claim their constitutional rights are being violated. (Blanca Begert, L.A. Times)
Power struggles:
Texas produced more electricity from big solar farms than California last year — although if you add in rooftops, California was still the solar leader. (Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News)
“If a small Christian shrine sat on this site … decision-makers would understand what ‘sacred’ means.” Tribes are furious over a federal agency’s decision to permit a pumped hydro project in Washington. (B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster, High Country News)
Turning Point USA, the late Charlie Kirk’s far-right advocacy group, has decided to get involved in a Phoenix-area public utility election with big energy and water stakes. (Jason Plautz, E&E News)
The Los Angeles fires:
What happens when you lose your Oscar statuette in a wildfire? In L.A., a bunch of folks are finding out. (Josh Rottenberg, L.A. Times)
The Palisades fire led to the closure of Pacific Palisades’ newspaper. Fortunately, new owners are bringing it back. (Clara Harter, L.A. Times)
I tried sending my five free gifts and was asked to pay that seemed the only option did I do something wrong?
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