BP takes a shit in our pond...

Today i received an email from my friend Jay about an oil refinery in Indiana, run by British Petroleum, dumping toxic ammonia and sludge into beautiful Lake Michigan. I was not aware of this, so I looked into it and found the whole messy story. They have been allowed to do this for years (and I mean YEARS). Since this refinery has been open for 117 years, that is a lot of "shit in our pond." This new debate is about the Governor of Indiana allowing BP to dump over 50% more of the "shit" now! The U.S. House of Reps. just passed a resolution "expressing their disapproval of the plan." That is the political way of saying "do what you want, but we don't really like it." That's not good enough for me and I hope it's not good enough for you either. I wrote a fairly lengthy email and i hope you will be inspired to copy it into an email and send it to all your email contacts like I did.

Here is the email I sent out... have a good one!

All,

Here is a petition to help stop British Petroleum (BP gas stations, etc.) from dumping toxic ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan at their refinement plant in Indiana.

This is a multi-billion dollar company; they should be using their record profits to reduce their pollution and upgrade their aging facilities (this refinery is 117 years old!), not to pad the pockets of people who are already very wealthy. They would rather spend 3 BILLION dollars to increase productivity (thus this new pollution they want permits for), than use that money to reduce the pollution they already create and dump into the lake EVERYDAY of the year. They claim that if they are allowed to commit this atrocity to our lake that they will be able to bring the gas prices down. That is how they are selling it to the U.S. Representatives and you the voter. Do you really think this will make a big difference at the pump? I for one don't think saving a few pennies is worth ruining this local treasure.

Make a statement and stand up (even if it's just a little bit like taking 2 minutes to complete this local petition) for the environment. The Great Lakes make up 25% of all the unfrozen fresh water on Earth. This is an important step in getting the voices of the little people heard and protecting a local resource we all enjoy and rely on for daily life.

Here is the wesite that will assist you in finding your local U.S. House Representative (the US House of Representatives just voted in favor of a resolution that "expresses disapproval of the plan"). If you could take the time to let as many of the above know that a resolution that states disapproval of this plan is not enough and we want this pollution reduced, not increased.

Bush refuses to do anything to stop this as well, so him know how you feel! (on second thought, that's pointless. He won't listen to reason)

I hope we can work together and get the word out that we won't stand for this type of behavior from a massive international oil company or the Governor of Indiana (he is the one that said, even after the resolution I mentioned above, he will allow this to continue).

If anyone is interested in reading some more information on this topic here are a few links to check out...
http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2007/07/25/updates/breaking_news/doc46a779559ad7f785307106.txt http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2007/07/25/updates/breaking_news/doc46a7914fc256a197316537.txt http://www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2007-07-30-mercury_N.htm
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bp_01aug01,0,913910.story?coll=chi_home_top

Thank you all for you time.