Government & Policy Roundup

The federal government has reached an agreement with Citgo in which six petroleum refineries will spend $320 million to install modern air pollution control equipment to eliminate 30,000 tons of pollution annually.

 Chevron Phillips Chemical has negotiated a settlement with the federal government in which the company will pay $1.8 million in civil penalties for Clean Air Act violations that caused two explosions, in 1999 and 2000, which killed three workers and injured 100 more at its Pasadena, Texas, plant. The penalty is a record for this type of violation, the government says.

 The American National Standards Institute's Nanotechnology Standards Panel met for the first time on Sept. 29–30 and developed a series of recommendations on ways to derive a consistent nomenclature and terminology for the field of nanotechnology. The recommendations will be refined by the panel's steering committee before being issued to standards and technology organizations later this year.