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BP Boycott: IT’S BP TIME!  Bigger Protests, Better Protests, Bolder Protests

WHO: Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club Illinois 

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE/PICKET 

WHERE: BP Gas Station
              1647 N La Salle Dr
              Chicago, IL 60614

WHEN:  Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.

WHY:  Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in conjunction with Jack Darin of the Sierra Club of Illinois, are continuing to protest  British Petroleum (BP) gas stations around the city of Chicago and across the country. 

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf Coast is now the most massive spill in world history.  The negative impact of oil refining operations is being felt not just along the Gulf Coast, but right next door in Whiting, Indiana as well.    The BP refinery in Whiting is polluting our air and water, and threatens the ecosystem of the Great Lakes.  It is refining oil made from tar sands, one of the dirtiest forms of crude in the world.

BP is purposely releasing polluted water right near the Chicago water intakes.  In 2009, the EPA cited the BP Whiting refinery with emitting cancer-causing benzene at its waste water treatment plant without proper air pollution control equipment.

Rainbow PUSH Coalition will be protesting these unsafe and ecologically damaging practices at BP.

It's time to get beyond BP and protect our environment.

Below is a partial list of BP worker safety violations and environmental violations:  

BP WORKER SAFETY VIOLATIONS – $215 million in penalties/settlements

BP paid the two largest fines in OSHA history – $87.43 million and $21.36 million – for willful negligence that led to the deaths of 15 workers and injured 170 others in a March 2005 refinery explosion in Texas.

In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for 296 “Egregious Willful Violations” and other violations associated with the explosion, fining BP $21.36 million and entering into a settlement agreement under which BP agreed to corrective actions to eliminate hazards similar to those that caused the explosion. In October 2009, OSHA determined that BP was in non-compliance with the settlement agreement, finding 270 notifications of failure to abate” and 439 new willful violations,
resulting in the $87.43 million fine. The U.S. Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board concluded in 2007 that “The Texas City disaster was caused by organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation. Warning signs of a possible disaster were present for several years, but company officials did not intervene effectively to prevent it.” This followed an August 2004 OSHA fine against BP for $63,000 for violations at the same facility.  In December 2009, a Texas jury returned a $100 million award against BP on behalf of workers injured in 2007 at the texas city refinery while making repairs after the 2005 blast.

BP ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS – $153 million in penalties/settlements, plus a guilty plea to an environmental felony and one criminal misdemeanor

In October 2007, BP agreed to pay a $50 million fine and plead guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act and will serve three years of probation for the Texas City refinery explosion.  Additionally, the EPA required BP to pay $785,662 to resolve Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act violations at its Texas City refinery in March 2009. In 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined BP $130,625 for unlawful releases of harmful pollutants at its Texas City refinery.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization protecting, defending and expanding civil rights to improve economic and educational opportunity.  The organization is headquartered at 930 E. 50th St. in Chicago. For more information about the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, please visit www.rainbowpush.org or call (773) 373-3366

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