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Code of Federal Regulations Title 30. Mineral Resources § 30.1241.70 How does ONRR decide the amount of the penalty to assess ?

Current as of January 02, 2025 | Updated by Findlaw Staff

(a) ONRR will determine the amount of the penalty to assess by considering:

(1) The severity of the violation.

(2) Your history of noncompliance.

(3) The size of your business. To determine the size of your business, we may consider the number of employees in your company, parent company or companies, and any subsidiaries and contractors.

<Text of subsection (b) effective until Nov. 1, 2021, as delayed by 86 FR 9286;  86 FR 20032.>

(b) We will not consider the royalty consequence of the underlying violation when determining the amount of the civil penalty for a violation under § 1241.50 or § 1241.60(b)(1)(ii) or (b)(2).

<Text of subsection (b) effective Nov. 1, 2021, as delayed by 86 FR 9286;  86 FR 20032.>

(b) For payment violations only, we will consider the unpaid, underpaid, or late payment amount in our analysis of the severity of the violation.

(c) We will post the FCCP and ILCP assessment matrices and any adjustments to the matrices on our Web site.

<Text of subsection (d) added by 86 FR 4659, effective Nov. 1, 2021, as delayed by 86 FR 9286;  86 FR 20032.>

(d) After we provisionally determine the civil penalty amount using the criteria and matrices described in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this section, we may adjust the penalty amount in the FCCP or ILCP upward or downward if we find aggravating or mitigating circumstances to exist.

(1) Aggravating circumstances may include, but are not limited to:

(i) Committing a violation because you determined that the cost of a potential penalty is less than the cost of compliance;

(ii) Committing a violation where you have no recent history of noncompliance of the same type, but you have a history of noncompliance of other violation types;

(iii) Committing a violation that is also a criminal act.

(2) Mitigating circumstances may include, but are not limited to:

(i) Operational impacts resulting from the unexpected illness or death of an employee, natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism, civil unrest, or armed conflict;

(ii) Delays caused by government action or inaction, including as a result of a government shutdown and an extended ONRR–system downtime;

(iii) Good-faith efforts to comply with formal or informal agency guidance.

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Cite this article: FindLaw.com - Code of Federal Regulations Title 30. Mineral Resources § 30.1241.70 How does ONRR decide the amount of the penalty to assess ? - last updated January 02, 2025 | https://codes.findlaw.com/cfr/title-30-mineral-resources/cfr-sect-30-1241-70/

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