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Sierra Club Lawsuits

EPA Blocks Air Permit for BP Refinery Expansion

Case Updates:

November 6, 2009

On October 19, a coalition of groups, including Sierra Club, were dealt a major victory when, in response to the groups’ petition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an objection to the operating permit for BP North America’s refinery in Whiting, Indiana that will require the state Department of Environmental Management to rewrite the permit. Sierra Club and its allies petitioned the EPA to object to the permit in August 2008 because it failed to accurately account for the large increases in dangerous air pollution that would be caused by BP’s refinery expansion.

In 2008, BP began a major expansion of the Whiting Refinery in order to process dirty Canadian tar sands crude oil at the facility. The expansion would make the facility the largest refiner of tar sands oil in the U.S. and would increase numerous air pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. In addition, the expansion would create approximately as much new global warming pollution as a new 300-400MW coal plant, about a forty percent increase from current refinery levels.

Yet, in its permit application, BP failed to take into account many distinct sources of pollution from the refinery, including flares (the large torch-like tower structures that burn excess gases from the refining process) and “fugitive emissions” from leaks and other sources. EPA’s objection requires the state Department to go back and redo the permit, taking these sources into account. This is the first EPA decision requiring that these pollution sources be addressed in refinery permits and represents a huge win in Sierra Club’s fight against dirty energy sources and global warming.

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