Friends of Nature, an environmental protection non-governmental organization in Beijing, is suing the Jilin branch of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for air pollution. The NGO will receive a public trial on Nov. 18 in Jilin province.

The Jilin branch of CNPC continuously discharges pollutants into the air, including sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide, violating the environmental protection law that is currently in place, claimed the NGO. Therefore, it sued the company for declining to eliminate that pollution, tasking the branch with accepting the cost of recovery.

The company has been on the receiving end of several administrative punishments in the last year. Jilin’s environmental protection bureau disciplined the company 10 times, assigning fines totaling 6,510,000 RMB. Additionally, the company was included on a list of 39 companies suspected of discharging excessive emissions in northeastern China, released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Nov. 5.

Ge Feng, the legal adviser of the NGO, explained that they have prosecuted six cases related to air pollution, focusing on industrial and vehicle exhaust emissions. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Jilin branch of CNPC claimed that they will offer a response after verifying the incident.