Carbide Dropped Off Rogue’s List But Maxxam Remains In Lineup Of Environmental Offenders

Union Carbide Corp., which once symbolized American corporate villainy abroad because of a deadly gas leak in India 11 years ago, has been rehabilitated by a prominent business ethics watchdog.

The Council on Economic Priorities removed Union Carbide from its fourth-annual ranking of worst environmental offenders, commending the chemical company’s safety program and efforts to help victims of the Bhopal gas disaster.

Four other companies also were deleted from the list for showing improvement: Texaco Inc., Westinghouse Electric Co., International Paper Co. and another paper products maker, Westvaco Corp.

The eight-company list, released Wednesday, is a kind of business rogue’s lineup in the eyes of environmental activists and investors who base decisions partly on whether companies are good citizens.

Businesses on the list call it biased, distorted or just plain wrong. Companies deleted from the list attribute the reason to what they call the council’s corrected reappraisals.

“We felt we didn’t belong on the CEP list in the first place,” said Union Carbide spokesman Tom Sprick.

Exxon Corp., the $101.5 billion oil company responsible for the Valdez oil spill in 1989, reappeared on the list this year. So did lumber cutter Maxxam Inc., which the council called a “grand offender” for sawing down California Redwoods. Maxxam also is the parent company of Kaiser Aluminum, Spokane’s largest manufacturing employer.

Southern Co., a Georgia-based power company, was on the list again, described as its industry’s top emitter of carbon dioxide.

New entrants included Occidental Petroleum Corp., electric utility Dominion Resources Inc., Formosa Plastics Corp. U.S.A., paper products maker Stone Container Corp. and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.

In compiling the list, the council says it studies more than 100 companies in “environmentally risky” industries for toxic releases, air pollution, and environmental cleanups. Nine judges review the data.

The council also recommends steps that listed companies can take to improve. Most have done so, said the group’s president, Alice Tepper Marlin.

“When we started this campaign, if you asked us to speculate, I don’t think any of us would have predicted that such a large proportion of the companies would have responded so constructively and effectively,” she said.

Last year, Union Carbide was cited for its record of spills and accidents and the gas leak at a factory in Bhopal, India, that killed about 4,000 people.

The Danbury, Conn.-based company, a leading producer of solvents, coatings and polyethylene plastic, was removed from the list this year because it has provided extensive help for victims and their families, and established a program to prevent accidents. It also hasn’t been cited for safety violations in recent years.

As in past years, listed companies denounced the findings.

“CEP has a history of misrepresenting Exxon’s environmental and safety performances and ignoring their own factual information,” Exxon said in a prepared statement from its Irving, Texas, headquarters.

William H. Byrd, spokesman for Virginia Power, the main subsidiary of Dominion Resources, said, “Frankly, we’re mystified by this ranking. We think it’s totally unjustified, completely unwarranted.”

Formosa Plastics, based in Livingston, N.J., and Wheeling-Pittsburgh, of Wheeling, W.Va., said the council based its report on outdated information. Chicago-based Stone Container said the council ignored facts. Atlanta-based Southern called the findings mistaken. Los Angeles-based Occidental said the council confused data. Houston-based Maxxam called the findings “biased, inaccurate and incomplete.”