Exxon Wants U.S. to Help Pay for Cleanup

HOUSTON (CN) - ExxonMobil demands that the federal government help pay to clean up its contaminated Baytown chemical plant. Exxon claims Uncle Sam dumped a "significant amount of waste" at the site during World War II, through the Korean War, when the government "converted and expanded the Baytown complex into a large manufacturing facility devoted to the production of critical, war-related materials for the United States."

Exxon says it's spent $45 million cleaning up the site to comply with orders from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It claims that Uncle Sam "caused or substantially contributed to the contamination at the site for which [Exxon] has incurred and will continue to incur remediation costs."

Exxon wants the federal government held liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 for "costs in excess of [ExxonMobil's] fair and equitable share of the response costs."

With 2009 revenue of more than $442 billion, ExxonMobil is the second-largest corporation in the world, according to Forbes magazine's 2009 list. Royal Dutch Shell is a tad bigger.

ExxonMobil is represented by Michael McGovern with Baker Botts' Washington, D.C. office.

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