The facility's permit is up for renewal. Activists say the Indiana Department of Environmental Management needs to do more to protect people who get their drinking water from Lake Michigan and visit its beaches.

BP plans to make what’s called “blue” hydrogen — using fossil fuels to make hydrogen and then storing its carbon emissions underground. That hydrogen could be used to reduce emissions in Indiana industries that are hard to decarbonize — like oil refining and steelmaking.

BP spokesperson Christina Audisho said Tuesday that “the Whiting Refinery is back to normal operations" at the site along Lake Michigan some 15 miles southeast of Chicago.