Oil giant BP's plan to expand its Whiting, Ind., refinery, just across the border from Chicago, is sparking a firestorm of opposition.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12774639
Insisting that they cannot stop BP from dumping more toxic waste into Lake Michigan, federal officials will instead try to persuade the oil company on Wednesday to finance other projects that would help clean up the lake.
This is interesting:
BP, which has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements and paid Internet bloggers to defend the permit, says it needs to discharge more pollution as part of a $3.8 billion expansion that will enable the Whiting refinery to process more heavy Canadian crude oil.
Who are these paid bloggers? Have they identified themselves?
This whole episode is evidence of two things: that governments and some businesses have forgotten that the goal of the 1972 Clean Water Act is ultimate elimination of pollution discharges -- that is, there is no entitlement to pollute; and that the public sometimes gets an issue far better than the insiders.
All residents of the Great Lakes Region need to boycott BP and any other manufacturers that refuse to display environmentally responsible practices of disposing of their waste products. These kind of wanton acts of disregard for the Earth should not be tolerated, and all humans should be concerned. If you wouldn't allow someone to put poison into your bottled water in your refrigerator, why would you allow them to poison our "Great Lakes" with contaminants. This is the main source of water for thousands of humans, and the home of many other species of life. There is a good reason why they don't put toilets in the middle of a kitchen. We should not allow anyone to turn the Great Lakes into a toilet. Thanks for reading this...Earth First
Posted by: Mr. Jamie Lytle | August 21, 2007 at 10:15 AM