A highly useful class

I would like to thank the Benicia Fire Department for the excellent BERT (Benicia Emergency Response Team) training they provided, free of charge, to interested members of our community. I was part of Class No. 31, and for six weeks attended a three-hour class each Monday night. This past Saturday, March 25, was the hands-on response training. This experience has been interesting and informative; I feel much better prepared to take care of not only myself and my family in an emergency, but to help my neighbors and other community members as well.
At the beginning of the class, we were each provided with a ring binder, full of information, that we used as we went through the classes. After the last class, we were each given– again free– an emergency backpack full of safety supplies. We took these with us on Saturday to make certain we knew how to use them all in emergencies.
Several of the Benicia firefighters taught individual classes. All were professional, well-prepared and eager to help. I believe all the firefighters participated at the Saturday hands-on training, as well as BERT members who volunteer regularly in keeping Benicia’s emergency equipment up to date and ready for use. All who taught the exercise were courteous, eager to teach and help, and appreciative of our time and efforts. It was a great experience as we practiced immediate emergency responses. Simulated tasks included retrieving someone from a pile of rubble, learning to turn utilities off and on, medical triage and primary treatment, light search and rescue as well as ways to help until professional assistance arrives. We also learned the different types of fire extinguishers and how to handle them.
The Benicia Fire Department’s goal is to teach this class twice a year to interested residents. They also offer other emergency classes, such as the CPR training to be held April 15. I cannot recommend them highly enough!
I am proud to live in a community that is so well-prepared and responsible. Thank you, BFD!

Leslie A Soughers,
Benicia

Notes from BAAQMD meeting

Last night my wife and I went to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s meeting at Benicia’s City Library. It was a full house. There were maybe 10 or 12 members of the BAAQMD’s staff present. They were there to present three proposals that are coming before the BAAQMD Board this year, to educate the public about these proposals and to seek public input. All three proposals were very complex, but they boil down to the following:

* Rule 11-18: Would reduce toxic emissions from hundreds of facilities ranging in size from large-scale plants like refineries to small operations like gas stations.

* Rule 13-1: Would limit emissions, but give refineries more flexibility to expand operations by only capping “carbon intensity per barrel”. (Carbon intensity is the emission rate of a given pollutant from a given source).

* Rule 12-16: Would cap greenhouse gasses and other emissions from refineries at 107 percent of current levels.

Only one of the proposals– 12-16– caps emissions of the Bay Area’s refineries at near current levels. This is really a modest proposal; it gives the industry the opportunity to continue operations slightly over the current level, protecting refinery jobs. The staff’s preferred alternative, Rule 13-1, does not set a cap, but opens the door for expansion of the refineries, and processing of dirty, “sour” crude oil from the Canadian Tar Sands. The refineries clearly would like the flexibility to expand their operations and process the dirtier Canadian crude oil.
The staff showed themselves to be knowledgeable and friendly, and the work they are doing is valuable. All the proposals are good in many ways, and represent serious efforts to protect our air quality and help mediate climate change. It was great they gave Greg Karras, the Senior Scientist from Communities for a Better Environment (cbecal.org), time to provide a well-reasoned and well-researched alternative view.
What was weird about the evening was that the staff were openly opposed to the one proposal that actually caps emission levels, 12-16. So, what was billed as a public input and information session turned out to be an opportunity for staff, lots of them, to propagandize against Rule 12-16. The audience was very polite and attentive at first, but became more agitated as the evening wore on. There was growing sense that we were being conned into supporting the industry’s prefered options.
If I was a board member, I would not want staff publicly working to undermine a rule that is under active consideration by the board. My understanding is that the staff’s role should be to support the board and serve the citizenry, and not to spin the facts in the direction that the industry that it supposed to be regulating clearly wants.
The Air District will accept public comment about these three rules until April 7th, 2017. I would encourage anyone that cares about air quality or climate change to contact the BAAQMD board, and urge them to support Rule 12-16. Email comments to both staff member Greg Gnudd, gnudd@baaqmd.gov and Board Chair Liz Kniss, liz.kniss@cityofpaloalto.org, or call 415-749-5073. More information is available at baaqmd.gov.
Given the current political situation, we in the Bay Area and California must protect our own environment, and lead the way for the rest of our nation.

Larnie Fox,
Benicia

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