THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010208
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Union Carbide Corp.'s public image got a boost Thursday when a prominent business-ethics watchdog group lauded the company for helping victims of the deadly gas leak in India that scarred its reputation 11 years ago.
The same group added Richmond-based Dominion Resources Inc., parent of Virginia Power, to its annual list of America's top corporate polluters.
The New York-based Council on Economic Priorities removed Union Carbide, Texaco Inc., Westinghouse Electric Co., International Paper Co. and Westvaco Corp. from its fourth annual ranking of worst environmental offenders.
New to the list, besides Dominion, were Occidental Petroleum Corp., Formosa Plastics Corp. U.S.A., paper products maker Stone Container Corp. and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.
Repeat appearances were made by Exxon Corp., the $101.5 billion oil company responsible for the Valdez oil spill in 1989; lumber cutter Maxxam Inc., which the council called a ``grand offender'' for sawing down California Redwoods; and Southern Co., a Georgia-based power company, described as its industry's top emitter of carbon dioxide.
The list is a business rogue's lineup in the eyes of environmental activists and investors who base decisions partly on whether companies are good citizens.
William H. Byrd, spokesman for Virginia Power, said it's not clear why that utility's parent company, Dominion Resources was on the list.
``Frankly, we're mystified by this ranking,'' Byrd said. ``We think it's totally unjustified, completely unwarranted.''
Among other things, the New York-based CEP knocked Dominion for having no ``official'' position in its latest annual report on environmental issues facing electric utilities and for having no designated corporate environmental officer or an environmental committee on its board.
The CEP report said Virginia Power's plants emit more sulfur dioxide than the industry average, but less carbon dioxide and nitrogen than average. It said the utility and its parent need to use more alternative power-generating sources.
Companies deleted from the list attribute the reason to what they call the council's corrected reappraisals.
Last year, Union Carbide was cited for its record of spills and accidents and the 1984 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, the CEP said. It also hasn't been cited for safety violations in recent years.
Yet Tom Sprick, a spokesman for Union Carbide, said: ``We felt we didn't belong on the CEP list in the first place.''
In compiling the list, the New York-based council says it studies more than 100 companies in ``environmentally risky'' industries for toxic releases, air pollution, and environmental cleanups. Nine judges - including professors, analysts and environmental activists - review the data. by CNB