Federal judge won’t block BP refinery expansion

HAMMOND – A federal judge has rejected a move by environmentalists to stop the $3.8 billion expansion of BP’s oil refinery along Lake Michigan.

Judge Philip Simon in Hammond dismissed the Natural Resources Defense Council’s request for an injunction, ruling an appeal pending before Indiana environmental regulators should be decided before the matter goes to federal court.

The environmentalists sued BP last year, claiming the state granted an air permit to BP based on “incorrect representations” about expected pollution from the Whiting refinery’s expansion.

The facility is the largest oil refinery in the Midwest. BP has said the expanded refinery would be the nation’s top processor of heavy high-sulfur Canadian crude oil.

Construction on the expansion began last year and is expected to be completed in 2011.