Bush Screws Us All Again

I like to eat paste

Gee thanks, (p)Resident Bush and your cronies and lackeys, thanks tons for your energy policy that willfully ignores what refiners do with their emissions, and thus pollute our air, water, soil.

Global-warming pollution from Midwest oil refineries is expected to soar by as much as 40 percent during the next decade, a dramatic increase that runs counter to regional and national efforts to curb heat-trapping gases.

Expansion plans at the BP refinery in Whiting would boost the facility's greenhouse-gas emissions to 5.8 million tons a year, the company told the Tribune. That would be equivalent to adding 320,000 cars to the nation's highways.

While greenhouse gases from the tailpipes of cars get the most attention, the refineries that keep cars and trucks running also contribute to global warming. Fuel must be burned to make gasoline from oil, generating carbon-dioxide pollution.


[snip]
With no greenhouse-gas regulations in place, the companies face no costs for the extra pollution they will churn into the atmosphere.

"This is a glaring example of how our energy policy and climate policy are at cross purposes," said Judi Greenwald, director of innovative solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "Companies are making decisions that really don't make sense on a national level when you fail to take climate change into account."
[From Refinery pollution may soar -- chicagotribune.com]
Impeach - Ketchikan

Of course Governor Blah Blah is right on it. Not.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has set a goal of cutting greenhouse gases in Illinois by 25 percent by 2020.

Yet the state failed to address global-warming pollution in a draft air permit it gave ConocoPhillips to convert its Wood River refinery in Downstate Roxana to process Canadian oil. Nor is the issue part of the discussions about refinery projects in other Midwest states.

Most state environmental officials contend they can't act unless Congress provides explicit authority to regulate global-warming pollution.

The exception is California, where Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown pressured ConocoPhillips to offset its carbon-dioxide emissions and make a refinery expansion carbon-neutral.

"If ConocoPhillips can do this in California, they and the other oil companies can do it in Illinois and every other state," said Howard Learner, president of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. "They should be cleaning up now rather than later."

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This page contains a single entry by Seth A. published on February 12, 2008 10:38 AM.

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