The NYT finally notices this two week old story.
Chicagoans Protest as Indiana Lets a Refinery Add to Lake Pollution:
Tens of thousands of people here have signed petitions protesting a permit granted in Indiana that allows the largest oil refinery in the Midwest to discharge more pollutants into Lake Michigan.Area residents signed petitions protesting an Indiana oil refinery’s plans to increase its daily discharge of pollutants into the lake.
The petitions, which advocates say they expect to deliver next week to Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, reflect growing concerns in the Great Lakes States that the permit undercuts efforts to clean up Lake Michigan.Organizers said Monday that they had collected 45,000 signatures.
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Last week, by a vote of 387 to 26, the United States House of Representatives approved a resolution urging Indiana to reconsider the permit. The resolution was introduced by Representatives Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois, and Vernon J. Ehlers, Republican of Michigan.
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Regulators in Indiana allowed the refinery in Whiting, Ind., just across the Illinois state line, to increase the amounts of ammonia and suspended solids that it releases into the lake after the facility undergoes a $3 billion expansion. BP last received a discharge permit for the refinery in 1990.Backers of the expansion, including Governor Daniels, said a bigger refinery would mean more jobs for Indiana — an estimated 2,000 contract jobs for the expansion and 80 positions at the refinery.
Mr. Daniels said he had no plans to rescind the permit.
“Here’s one of the biggest steps forward for the Midwest, really the whole nation,” Mr. Daniels, a Republican, told reporters last week. “I don’t think it should be held up without a good scientific reason, and none has been provided.”
Nope, no scientific reason at all that increasing the amount of pollution in a fresh water lake, shared by the population of 5 or 6 states, would be a decision to avoid. Gee, thanks, Gov Daniels. I'm sure all of your drinking water comes directly out of BP's spigots, right? Perhaps we should put you in Grover Norquist's famous bathtub, except instead of filled with Federal dollars, the tub is filled with water released from the Whiting plant?
A number of governors, from Democrats Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Mark Warner of Virginia to Republicans like Mitch Daniels of Indiana, have pushed through significant tax increases...Daniels's apostasy was particularly meaningful, since he was once Bush's budget director and had been a lifelong fellow traveler of antitax warrior Grover Norquist.(from Chris Hayes of The Nation)
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