Energy CEOs Recently Invited to White HouseHave Spilled Thousands of Barrels of Oil Across Western U.S., Imperiling Public Lands and Health

The same oil corporations clamoring for a bailout from President Trump have spilled nearly 10,000 barrels of oil and other toxic petroleum byproducts across the Western United States according to new research released today by Western Values Project, a Montana-based public lands-focused project of Accountable.US. 

President Donald Trump recently met with big oil energy executives–whose companies have given vast sums to his campaign coffers–to discuss taxpayer-funded bailout options for their corporations. News reports indicate that Trump is still exploring unilateral action outside of Congress, such as royalty rate reductions, weakened environmental enforcement, and Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) purchases or leasing, to bail out the unsustainable oil and gas industry. 

“Even for Trump, this is a new low: he wants to reward polluters for their bad behavior with hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” said Western Values Project Director Jayson O’Neill. “Trump should be focusing on helping the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are sick and the millions who are unemployed instead of bailing out billionaire CEOs. Using a global pandemic to help his big oil cronies who have defiled our public lands isn’t just swampy, it’s cruel.” 

This follows reports that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency will relax enforcement of environmental violations during the coronavirus epidemic, despite the heightened attention on links between air quality and public health.

Western Values Project found that each of the oil corporations Trump met with late last week has had hundreds of oil spills across the West. Previous research found that some of these same oil and gas corporations have major outstanding environmental violations. 

ExxonMobil Corp Has Had Two Oil Spill Incidents In Wyoming

• ExxonMobil spilled 36.9 barrels of oil in Wyoming on March 14, 2012. [Wyoming incident 120315-162458, accessed 04/06/20]
• ExxonMobil spilled 75 gallons of oil near Kemmerer, Wyoming on January 27, 2014. [Wyoming incident 140128-203049, accessed 04/06/20]

Chevron Has Had 160 Separate Oil Spills In Wyoming, Colorado, And New Mexico 

• Chevron spilled 12 barrels of oil into the ground at Wild Cat Canyon in Wyoming on April 14, 2010. [Wyoming incident 100414-0900, accessed 04/06/20]
• Chevron Has Filed 121 Separate Spill/Release Incident Reports In Colorado Since April 2015. [Colorado O&G Conservation Commission, accessed 04/06/20]
• Chevron has spilled 1,154 barrels of oil in 38 separate incidents in New Mexico Since 2015. [New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, accessed 04/06/20]

Occidental Petroleum Corp Has Had 28 Separate Oil Spills In Wyoming And New Mexico

• On October 1, 2019, Occidental Petroleum spilled .05 tons of VOC residual gas after a contractor struck a pipeline within its plant. [Wyoming incident 191002-150113, accessed  04/06/20]
• Occidental has had 27 separate incidents of crude oil spills in New Mexico since January 15, totaling 195 barrels of oil. [New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, accessed 04/06/20] 

Energy Transfer Partners Has Had Two Small Oil Spills In New Mexico 

• Energy Transfer Partners has had two separate incidents of crude oil spills in New Mexico since January 2016. In total, it spilled 10 barrels of crude oil. [New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, accessed 04/06/20]

Phillips 66 Has Spilled Gasoline And Diesel Throughout Wyoming And Has Spilled 338 Barrels Of Crude Oil In New Mexico

• On September 21, 2015, Phillips 66 Pipeline LLC spoiled 1 barrel of gasoline in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 150921-193911, accessed 04/06/20]
• On June 21 2015, Phillips 66 Pipeline LLC spilled 200 barrels of diesel fuel in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 150630-144037, accessed 04/06/20] 
• On May 3, 2015, Phillips 66 Pipeline LLC spilled 2 barrels of diesel fuel in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 150503-201720, accessed 04/06/20]
• On May 24, 2014, Phillips 66 spilled 42 gallons of a gasoline/diesel mixture in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 140524-183709, accessed 04/06/20] 
• On January 16, 2014, Phillips 66 spilled 33.62 gallons of gasoline/diesel mixture in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 140116-190031 04/06/20] 
• On November 18, 2016, Phillips 66 spilled 2 barrels of gasoline in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 161118-102157, accessed 04/06/20]
• Phillips 66 has had three separate oil spills in New Mexico since January 2018. It spilled a total of 338 barrels of crude oil. [Nev Mexico Oil Conservation Division, accessed 04/06/20]

Continental Resources Spilled 367 Barrels Of Oil In Wyoming In Three Separate Incidents In 2011

• 3036 On September 15, 2011, Continental Resources spilled 92 barrels of oil in Wyoming. [Wyoming incident 110916-074315, accessed 04/06/20]
• 3218 On February 27, 2011, Continental Resources spilled 25 barrels of oil in Wyoming. [Wyoming Incident 110227-1100, accessed 04/06/20] 
• 3289 On January 16, 2011, Continental Resources spilled 250 barrels of oil in Wyoming. [Wyoming Incident 110116-0900, accessed 04/06/20]

Devon Energy Corp Has Had Hundreds Of Separate Oil Spills Throughout The West, Spilling Thousands Of Gallons Of Crude Oil 

• Devon Energy, Since 2010, has spilled 629 barrels of oil in 19 separate incidents in Wyoming. [Wyoming oil spill search, accessed 04/06/20]
• Devon Energy, since 2010, has spilled 6,478 barrels of produced water in its oil operations in 50 separate incidents in Wyoming. [Wyoming oil spill search, accessed 04/06/20]
• Devon Energy, since 2015, has had 226 separate oil spills in New Mexico, totaling 6,843 barrels of crude oil. [New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, accessed 04/06/20]