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US EPA Announcement of Guardian Industries Clean Air Settlement

Under a Sept. 29 settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to resolve federal Clean Air Act violations, Guardian Industries Corp., a major global provider of flat glass for building and automotive uses, has agreed to spend $70 million to control elevated pollutant emissions caused by furnace modifications at seven U.S. plants.

The Michigan-based company, which reported $5.6 billion in 2014 revenue, also agreed to a $312,000 civil penalty and to fund a $150,000 mitigation project in California’s San Joaquin Valley to replace or retrofit higher-polluting wood-burning appliances with cleaner ones.

Guardian's modifications will control emissions of nitogen oxide. The company, which has 17,000 employees in 25 countries, said it was the first maker of flat glass, also known as float glass, to sign what it called a “mutually beneficial agreement” with the governnment under its national enforcement initiative of clean air rules.