You know without oil I am not sure how most things would be able to get done around here. We would not be able to get to work because lets face it, sun powered cars just aren’t feasible for 24/7 yet. We would not be able to fly or cruise on boats. We would not have synthetic fibers, some medicines, fertilizers, wax, additives for food, etc. All of these are biproducts of petroleum. Without it none of this would exist unless we could come up with some other alternatives and honestly I would not know where to begin. That being said, there is always a fight going on between any given oil company and some environmental organization regarding the toxic waste once the oil is refined. Sadly, we can never know who actually is telling the whole truth and more often than not is usually the combination of the both and/or somewhere in between.
The Chicago Tribune posted a recent story about BP dumping large amounts of ammonia and more sludge into Lake Michigan each day (registration required) which still meets federal water pollution guidelines by law. However, if you look at the BP Whiting Refinery Fact Sheet it shows that all sludge is treated separately according to state and federal requirements which is never discharged into Lake Michigan. What is released from the refinery is treated water that is more than 99.9% water and not sludge. So here we have some of the combative issues at hand. Who do you believe?
Now with this increase of 15% of its current capacity a day this will create 80 new jobs to handle the heavy crude oil coming from Canada. This ultimately means that this will be oil we will not need to produce from the Midwest. If you look back, the last refinery was built about 29 years ago. Why? Because environmental and political organizations have prevented new ones. Since 9/11, the price of oil is just skyrocketing, and with us bringing in oil from outside countries due to our inadequate supply in our own country, this will eventually be detrimental to everyone trying to compete for the oil that remains available for sale.
I urge you to form your own opinions about this and review the facts about the BP Whiting Refinery. This refinery has been in operation for over 117 years and hopes to continue to serve the community in years to come by moderizing the facility, creating new jobs and working with federal, state and local organizations.
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