“Today’s record-setting Clean Air Act settlement is the most significant yet under EPA’s climate change enforcement initiative and makes clear that EPA will hold polluters like Marathon accountable for violations that put communities and our future at risk,” David Ullman, deputy administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in a statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the settlement “ensures cleaner air for communities across North Dakota and holds Marathon accountable for its illegal pollution.”
Marathon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In their complaint, the EPA and Justice Department alleged that Marathon violated Clean Air Act requirements at about 90 facilities, including one on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota. Those violations resulted in thousands of tons of illegal pollution, the EPA and Justice Department said.
In particular, the facilities were emitting illegal amounts of volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide, which are linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses, officials said. They also were emitting large amounts of methaneIt is a potent greenhouse gas that warms the planet faster than carbon dioxide in the short term.
Under the agreement announced Thursday, Marathon will have to make cuts. The EPA said in a news release that the settlement will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2.25 million tons over the next five years, roughly the amount avoided by taking 487,000 cars off the road for one year. The EPA said the settlement will also reduce volatile organic compound emissions by about 110,000 tons.
Marathon was the nation’s 22nd largest oil producer in 2022, but the seventh largest emitter of greenhouse gases within the oil and gas industry. The majority of those emissions came from flaring, the intentional release of methane into the atmosphere rather than building devices to capture it.
