Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Thursday, July 26, 2007 6:13:54 PM
BP's expansion of it's Northwest Indiana refinery will be delayed due to opposition. Indiana recently gave BP a permit to increase pollution due to the expansion project. Illinois and Michigan politicians are going crazy over this. As a said in a past post, what business is it of theirs? I dare say it wouldn't be a problem if this refinery had been placed in their states, but neither Illinois or Michigan are very business friendly these days. Nobody seemed to do much before this permit in the way of opposition. It was looking like there would be little opposition to it. It not like there are companies lining up to spend 3 billion in northern lake county. Oh well.
The permit allows pollution that is well below federal and state rules. Indiana rules are stricter then both federal, Illinois and Michigan's. The discharge would be 99.9% water, there is no technology at this point to make it lower. So the issue really isn't about pollution (Ok maybe a little bit for enviro groups it is, but not the politicians). A refinery cannot be pollution free.
I guess it remains to be seen if this project dies or not. I guess we will be paying $3 a gallon for gas a little longer.
Its so hard to get people to look at this without the pollution issue over everything else. Pity