ExxonMobil Pleads Guilty to Killing Migratory Birds, Pays 20 Minutes of Income

Saturday, August 15, 2009
White-Faced Ibis

It will take ExxonMobil Corporation, the world’s largest oil company, less than half an hour to replace the money it will have to pay the U.S. government for killing 85 migratory birds during the past five years at its natural gas facilities in the central portion of the country. The company pled guilty in a Denver federal court on Thursday to five charges of violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which will result in $400,000 in fines and $200,000 in community service payments. Based on the $8.6 billion in revenues ExxonMobil made last year, the $600,000 penalty is about what the oil giant made every 20 minutes in 2008.

 
The 85 birds died from exposure to hydrocarbons in uncovered natural gas well reserve pits and waste water storage facilities at Exxon-Mobil sites in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The birds killed included ducks, grebes, ibis, passerines, shorebirds, owls, martin and one hawk.
 
Company executives have agreed to make changes at natural gas sites to prevent future bird fatalities.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 

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