BP latest Lake Michigan Oil Spill more than twice as large as first reported, Republicans love Pollution

BP's oil spill from their Whiting, Indiana processing plant into Lake Michigan doubled in size. BP raised the "estimated" amount of oil spilled up from 600 gallons to well over 1600 gallons. But, in reality, this latest estimate is just a guess by BP, as well, and the final total and damage is sure to increase.

Lake Michigan, as one of the Great Lakes the repository of 21% of the World's Fresh Water, is the primary source for drinking water used by 7-12 million people.

Initially, BP claimed the cold conditions and ice on the water allowed them to collect the waxy oil spilled, which was characterized as small. However, Illinois Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin made several public declarations and vowed to investigate the spills causes and effects.

Mark Kirk's refusal to slander Dick Durbin and his non-deference to BP has greatly angered the Illinois Republican Party and Conservatives, in general. Over at the fetid Hotair, Ed Morissey declares Kirk is a coward who won't go Nuclear on Durbin while commenters declare Kirk is a "crap weasel" with "no testicles". Meanwhile, the Illinois Republican Party is looking to implant Jim Oberweis another Corporate scumbag who will vote to eliminate regulations and unchain Corporations.

Just last week, US House Republicans voted to allow Coal Mining Companies to dump Coal Ash into lakes, rivers and streams. In 2011, US House Republicans passed H.R. 2018 to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972 and allow Polluting Corporations to do so with total impunity and immunity.

The vote last week by the Republicans was in response to President Obama's decision to empower the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to protect and defend 20 million acres of wetlands and river sheds from the Pollution Industry. So, the Republicans decided to look out for their constituents.

The Pollution Industry is a big money maker so, of course, Republicans will look out for the Corporations Interest and harm Americans because their job is to defend and empower Corporations at the expense of America.

US House Republicans love Pollution, vote to make dumping Coal Ash and mining waste into streams "Legal"

Faced with the massive toxic coal ash spills into waterways, US House Republicans decided to make the dumping of toxins into rivers, lake, streams legal. After all they won't be drinking, bathing or fishing in the toxic water. John Boehner called it a "pro-jobs growth bill". Because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations!

Congressional Republicans are evil. While an argument could be made the Republican Party contains some good people, any Republican you may have the misfortune to run into in Washington DC, is a villain worse than a mustache twirling caricature of evil. 

Throughout the Misadministration of George W(orst President Ever) Bush, Federal agencies ignorned the criminal polluting by Coal Mining Companies and in the December of 2008, Bush snuck through regulations giving them freedom to dump coal ash and other toxic waste products into nearby rivers, lakes and streams. Because Regulations are job-killers and the word Jobs is magic.

This last year has seen a number of Massive Toxic Coal Sludge Spills into Rivers rendering them not only undrinkable but untouchable.

Duke Energy followed dumping of 82,000 tons of coal ash and 27 Million gallons of contaminated water into the Dan River with another spill because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations! Duke Energy dumped 61 million gallons of coal ash wastewater into the Cape Fear River Basin from its coal plant in nearby Moncure, in Chatham County North Carolina. The vote by House Republicans would simply legalize these spills because Republicans are evil.

This vote is nothing more than a campaign promise Eric Cantor and Congressional Republicans has made to Corporations, 

"Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in." - Eric Cantor.

Republicans run this Nation for their Corporate Overlords. They don't care what happens to the Country so do you think they're going to care if your home's drinking water is contaminated? No, Republicans and their Moneyed Masters aren't going to be affected and they know their conservative base can be easily prodded into ignoring Republican Evil by yelling about President Obama's mom jeans or Benghazi!!1!11! who can be reliably counted upon to attack Liberals because condemning Pollution and the criminal negligence of Coal Companies is evil liberals/democrats punishing success.

The Pollution-Industry is making huge profits and Republicans are working to make sure any costs they incur while raping the Nation and Planet will be passed onto the taxpayer and Working Class. Because Republicans job in Government is to ensure Profits and Privatized while Losses are Socialized.

Additionally, 2013 saw the amount of oil spill surpass the last 40 years combined;

Altogether, 800,000 gallons spilled from US railroads in the years from 1975 to 2010. That data, which comes from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, does not include records of Canadian spills, some of which are thought to surpass one million gallons spilled on their own. 

In part because of major derailments in Alabama and North Dakota, over 1.15 million gallons of crude oil seeped from train cars.

So, it should come as no surprise that BP at Whiting Indiana is back to polluting Lake Michigan again. Because Fuck the EPA and all Regulations. BP confirmed their plant, newly renovated to process Canadian Tar Sands, dumped a huge unknown amount of oil and tar sands sludge into Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan water is the primary source for drinking water for 12 million Americans in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

But, while all this is occurring duped and ignorant conservatives across the Nation are busy deriding President Obama for not doing something, something, something about Crimea instead of focusing on the Terrorists, Koch Industries, Duke Energy, BP, Murray Energy and so many others, in our midst. Just as their Republican Handlers and Plutocratic Masters intend.

Petcoke in Chicago

Earlier this year Detroit was smothered in Petroleum Coke (Petcoke), the newest waste product of the filthy Koch Brothers Koch Carbon LLC and other Multi-National Oil Conglomerates, from the refining of Canadian Tar Sands. Giant clouds of toxic black dust and carbon choked poor Detroit residents until Detroit Mayor David Bing ordered Koch Brothers Sovereign Corporation Koch Carbon LLC to remove the petcoke.

Koch Carbon surreptitiously removed the Petcoke, most likely to Ohio, where the High-Sulfur heavily polluting toxic waste was probably burned for electricity.

Well, Our Corporate Lords and Masters are at it again. If you ever wondered what it was like to live in 19th century London with Industrial Factories dumping massive amounts of carbon on your heads come to the Southside of Chicago where massive piles of Petcoke are collecting along the Calumet River.

BP Whiting, which under George W(orst President Ever) dumped thousands of tons of toxic chemicals (including tons of mercury) into Lake Michigan in violation of the Republican neutered EPA regulations, now don't even have to worry about the Rump EPA, as the Right-Wing Government Shutdown has furloughed 99% of the EPA.

I suppose it makes sense. Conservatives have increasingly pushed America back to the 19th century. By, rolling back Voting Rights for minorities, making Birth Control illegal for women, involving the US in various little conflicts, many in the same regions Victoria and her PM's sent troops, and a retarded economic system which rewards the Inheritors of Wealth, Rentiers and Robber Barons.

So, why shouldn't we get to experience the joys of 19th century Industrial expansion as well?

BP Whiting is producing 6000 tons of Petcoke a day.Detroit’s Marathon refinery wasn’t producing petcoke before its expansion, according to the report, but now produces 1,720 tons per day while the Phillips 66 refinery in Wood River, Illinois, is increasing its petcoke output from 1,300 to 5,700 tons per day.

The waste product is laced with sulfur, mercury, nickel, vanadium and selenium and various other toxic residue but why should that matter to the Koch Brothers or BP? It's not in their backyard. They don't have the clouds of choking carbon befouling their lungs. The petcoke isn't sitting next to river they live upon.

Tom Shepard, a neighborhood activist, worries about piles
of petcoke building up along the Calumet River in Chicago.
(Photo by Kari Lydersen / Midwest Energy News)

But, who needs a Government? Who needs an EPA? Who needs Job Killing Regulations?

Peter Roskam called me the other day about the job-killing EPA

While relaxing at home one evening, my antiquated landline rang. Why whomever could it be calling me on this line? I wondered. It was Republican Illinois House member Peter Roskam conducting a Telephone Town Hall Meeting

Roskam does these phone call "town halls" where the listener can listen to Roskam speak to people or, if they are so inclined, press the pound key to be transferred to a staffer to screen a question for Representative Roskam. I did so and told the nameless staffer I'd like to ask Representative Roskam a question about his yes vote for HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Representative Roskam took my question. I told him in light of the egregious and on-going dumping problem by the BP plant at Whiting Indiana how did he feel it was a responsible position to vote to eliminate the Federal Government's power to regulate and stop Corporations from polluting and put that power in the hands of the States, when his constituents' drinking water was directly affected by another State Government's decision.

For reference, the Indiana State Government voted to allow BP to ignore the EPA and the Clean Water Act on the amount of Mercury it dumps into Lake Michigan. Mercury is toxic substance to humans that once it enters the human body can not be gotten rid of and leads to heavy metal poisioning*. The reason we Chicagoans can not eat Lake Michigan fish? Too much Mercury. The BP Whiting Indiana plant also dumps a dozen toxic byproducts of oil refining, including benzene, toluene and suspended solids containing mercury, lead, nickel and vanadium

The BP Whiting Indiana plant has a history of flouting EPA regulations and dumping huge amounts of toxic pollutants into our air and drinking water. And while in 2007 the Indiana Government was paid off to state BP would self-regulate and was working within Federal guidelines, the truth is BP was blatantly polluting the Lake.

In 2009, BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

So, faced with the fact that his vote would allow a Corporation based in one state, in this case Indiana, to flout laws and regulations and directly harm the citizens of other states, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan all draw water from Lake Michigan, how could he justify it?

Well, here's how all Republicans justify their actions, by anecdotal analogy. Peter Roskam related to me a story about how some nice small business in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was hampered in their mechanical engineering designs by the over regulation of the EPA, which demanded they produce an engine type which they could not possibly produce thus causing the small business to fail. If there is one thing the Republicans do well it's stay on message.

The Republicans have been proclaiming the EPA kills jobs, and obviously Roskam's folksy aw shucks small business anecdote was unassailable and proved the Republican message. Plus this being a telephone conference, I was not allowed to ask a follow-up about his vote about the Clean Water bill, but that is to be expected.

Now, Representative Roskam seems like a nice moderate conservative, but it's his type and his willingness to go along with the Michele Bachmann's of the Party and their crazy, fringe, plutocratically controlled views, in this case "The Job-Killing EPA" and vote overwhelmingly for bills which are clearly harming the American people.

* - Sir Isaac Newton most likely suffered from mercury toxicity due to his early alchemical work.