May 29, 2018: Sierra Club and EIP have gone to court after EPA rejected their administrative challenge to the operating permit for one part of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s sprawling Baytown refinery and petrochemical complex near Houston.
In the lawsuit, filed last week with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Environmental Integrity Project and Sierra Club did not spell out the grounds for the legal challenge. But in March, EPA had rejected their 2016 petition questioning a decision by Texas regulators to classify a new ethylene production unit at the complex as a "minor modification" not subject to New Source Review permitting requirements that could have resulted in added pollution controls. Read more.