BP- Environmental Impact on their actions
The had been some bad press that circulated regarding the BP that appeared on Chicago Tribune recently. According to the report, BP as an advertised eco-friendly company is investing 3.8 Billion USD expansion to allow the company to refine Canadian Crude oil. This is to minimize our reliance of oil from the Middle East.
The report stated that BP is already one of the largest polluters of the Great Lakes and with their new water permit, it stated that they can release more ammonia and 35 per cent more sludge. When in truth, BP will only be releasing ‘treated water’ which contains 99.9% water than sludge. And even if they release more ammonia, it still falls below the EPA standards. The permit would have not been allowed BP if it is known that the deal will cause harm in human and aquatic life.
It also stated that the expansion will only create 80 full time jobs. That may be true but it wasn’t mentioned that the expansion will create 2000 new jobs, on top of the current 1700 employees and 1500 contract workers. The 80 employees will be the total retained employees upon completion.
We all know the importance of oil independence from the Middle East, specially these days. With the wake of 9/11, we haven’t really much improved resources to be independent of Middle East oil. This is a step forward as discussed on the editorial on news-sentinel.com.
BP has been around for 117 years and has served its community well. It has promised that it will keep its high standards and has committed to civic and environmental leadership and would like to continue serving its neighbors for many more years to come.
It is true that environmentalists watch that this doesn’t become the norm, but rather pull together and hold BP accountable if it does not meet the promises that they made.
