A major oil company faces significant penalties for polluting Native land. The Justice Department announced a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil for polluting the air of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota with methane from natural gas flaring.
“This historic settlement — the largest ever civil penalty for violations of the Clean Air Act at stationary sources — will ensure cleaner air for the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and other communities in North Dakota, while holding Marathon accountable for its illegal pollution,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, established in 1870 by executive order, is home to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples. Despite oil being discovered on this land in 1951, federal bureaucracy made access difficult until it was eased ahead of the Bakken shale oil boom, which brought financial windfall but also environmental costs. Natural gas drilling byproducts like “flaring” release methane into the atmosphere, a potent climate super-pollutant.
The Justice Department noted that up to 240 billion cubic feet of natural gas was released on the reservation land between 2012 and 2020. Most of the settlement will fund emissions reductions at Fort Berthold operations, with Marathon Oil committing $170 million to these efforts, and paying an additional $64.5 million in cash.
Despite being acquired by ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil stated that these expenditures and penalties will not materially affect their business or the merger agreement.