By John Donovan
According to an article published on 25 February 2011 by The Wall Street Journal, Royal Dutch Shell Plc has recently reported “unplanned” flaring at its Martinez refinery in California.
Shell has a track record of illegal emissions at the refinery, paying fines totaling over $25 million since 1989.
On 1 December 1989, The New York Times reported that Shell Oil Company had agreed to pay $19.75 million for spilling more than 400,000 gallons of crude oil into San Francisco Bay. Shell said that it had spent an additional $14 million in cleaning up the spill, when oil flowed from a pipe at its Martinez refinery in April 1988. Oil leaked out from a 12.5-million-gallon storage tank at the manufacturing complex 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. The Government said that several Federal regulations were broken. According to the article at least 250 birds and 50 other animals were found dead and a valuable wildlife habitat was ruined and tidal marshlands would take 10 years to recover.