Fighting Global Warming Pollution from Refineries
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Six oil refinery expansions have recently been proposed across the Midwest over due in large part to the newly commercially viable tar sands in Alberta, Canada. Canadian crude comes from Alberta tar sands. The tar sands are processed at the site where they are extracted; they are washed and filtered to remove the crude from the sand and then the resulting extra heavy crude is transported to refineries where it is refined. Once refined, it results in diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, and other products.
ELPC’s Current Initiatives
The potential increase in global warming from oil refinery expansion is enormous. ELPC’s efforts on this initiative include:
- Representation by ELPC attorneys of Indiana environmental groups who are challenging the air pollution permits on the BP refinery in Northwest Indiana, which are in violation of the Clean Air Act. To protect public health, ELPC is arguing that state-of-the-art pollution controls and advanced environmental technologies must be installed at the outset to achieve no net increase in air pollution and full carbon dioxide mitigation.
- Monitoring of the proposed new oil refinery in Hyperion, SD, which would add 19 million tons of pollution to the state—the equivalent of 4-6 new coal-fired power plants.
Recent Highlights
- In response to a petition from ELPC and other environmental groups, US EPA issued an objection to the operating permit for BP North America’s refinery in Whiting, IN in October 2009. The permit will need to be revised to accurately account for the large increases in dangerous air pollution caused by BP’s expansion of the refinery.
- In 2007, ELPC helped achieve a very significant and highly visible victory by successfully challenging BP’s proposal to increase its water pollution into Lake Michigan as a result of its oil refinery expansion.
Tags: Cleaning Up Oil Refineries
