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From the Huffington Post:

By Jesse Jackson

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf Coast is now the most massive spill in world history. The negative impact of oil refining operations is being felt not just along the Gulf Coast, but right next door in Whiting, Indiana as well. The BP refinery in Whiting is polluting our air and water, and threatens the ecosystem of the Great Lakes. It is refining oil made from tar sands, one of the dirtiest forms of crude in the world, and is one of the largest polluters along the Great Lakes.

While the eyes of the world are focused on the unmitigated disaster along the Gulf Coast, there is a growing danger right here in Illinois. BP’s planned expansion of its Whiting, IN refinery — already the 6th largest polluter in the greater Chicago area — threatens the clean, cheap, and plentiful Lake Michigan drinking water, one of our region’s greatest natural resources.

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As Capitol Hill Blue reported, BP’s attack on the Great Lakes comes in three parts:

a) BP wants to drill under Lake Michigan, almost a mile below the lake’s bottom. Think of the Gulf leak, but with fresh, not salt water.

b) BP is the 6th largest polluter in the Chicago area. With its new Whiting refinery capacity, its pollution output will increase by 40%.

c) BP deliberately pollutes Lake Michigan with benzene & mercury. Remnants from the tar sands refining process will be far, far worse.

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