EPA upholds air permit for oil refinery

WHITING, Ind. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the final state permit that BP needed to start work on the expansion of its oil refinery along Lake Michigan.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management last month granted BP an air emissions permit for the company's planned $3.8 billion expansion of the Whiting refinery.

An attorney for environmental groups challenging the project says the EPA's approval will not affect their appeals of the state-issued permit. They want requirements that BP install additional pollution control equipment.

BP has said the expanded refinery would be the nation's top processor of heavy high-sulfur Canadian crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel.