IN RESPONSE TO A LETTER TO THE EDITOR last week in The Benicia Herald, I want to correct the most important misinformation the writer shared with the newspaper’s readers. It had to do with the suggestion that Valero would put profits above safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As a Benicia resident and the safety manager at the refinery, I know the truth and I can speak for everyone who works in our refinery.
Our refinery’s top three strategic objectives, listed in order of priority, are found in presentations we make to employees, Valero’s Community Advisory Panel (CAP), and to others in tour groups who visit the refinery. Valero CAP presentations that include our objectives can be found on file at the Benicia Public Library.
Here are the objectives:
• Safety — Maintain an injury-free workplace
• Reliability — Achieve industry-leading asset availability
• Environment — Eliminate environmental incidents
When we work safely, operate reliably and in an environmentally sound manner, we have the opportunity to succeed as a “for-profit” company. Investors in our company do expect a return on their investment. Investing in safety is a wise choice — as is investment in equipment maintenance, so it runs properly when needed to refine crude, and investment in good environmental stewardship.
These top three strategic objectives provide the opportunity to achieve our fourth objective:
• Profitability — Industry-leading returns for Valero
Finally, these four objectives can only be achieved by having an organization that is capable of executing the plans, programs and practices necessary for success. Therefore, our fifth objective is:
• Organizational Capability — Build and maintain an organization that combines people, processes and culture to achieve and sustain industry-leading results
I use the term “opportunity” in relation to profitability because other factors can harm the bottom line, like access to affordable raw materials. Yet we know we must work safely, reliably and in an environmentally sound manner at all times to succeed in business.
Readers should also know that the state of California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) recently recognized our refinery for the third time since 2006 for our continuous commitment to refinery safety. We are the only refinery in the Bay Area to have attained this designation and one of only two refineries in the state of California to be designated as Cal/OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Star Sites, the other being Valero’s Wilmington Refinery near Los Angeles.
In our country, operating a safe, reliable, environmentally sound and profitable business — run by employees and contractors who are invested in their company, as well as in the communities where they live — is considered an exemplary business model. I am proud to be a Benicia resident AND an employee of Valero.
I hope this information is helpful.
Keith Washington is safety manager at Valero Benicia Refinery. He has worked at the refinery for 27 years. He lives in Benicia.
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Mr. Washington that was an outstanding clarification. Lets hope the nay sayers now understand the stance that Valero has demonstrated not only in Benicia but other places. Keep up the good work.
Beyond the company man and the pied piper–
From the above post:
“As a Benicia resident and the safety manager at the refinery, I know the truth and I can speak for everyone who works in our refinery.”
From the article below; A local perspective.
More “truth” on crude-by-rail news the community can use…
Why Isn’t Petcoke Regulated As a Public Health Threat?
“A friend of Mrs. Bardet’s who runs a business near the train tracks that lead in and out of the Valero refinery was able to easily scoop all of this petcoke right off the tracks “in one go”:
“But it’s not just the train tracks that are polluted with the stuff. After leaving the refinery, petcoke is taken to Benicia’s port facility, where it’s dumped into open-air container ships. A nearby community reports finding a dusting of petcoke on their homes and gardens as a result.”
“The most important thing to remember about this stuff is that it travels in air as a tiny toxic particulate at 2.5 microns,” Mrs. Bardet says, “and will act as a carrier for other volatile organic compounds found in urban environments from car exhaust, refineries, industries, etc., that attach themselves to the particles, that then travel into the lungs of sensitive receptors and lodge in the lung tissue, delivering their toxins into the bloodstream.”
http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/14/why-isn-t-petcoke-regulated-public-health-threat
Will, I am retired now but worked as a coker operator for close to 30 years. Hands on dealing with pet coke daily and you make a mountain out of a mole hill . Coke is no big deal. Why do you blow things out of proportion and get people all stirred up over nothing.
RKJ said: you make a mountain out of a mole hill .
Amen to that!
Beyond the company man and the pied piper–
From the above post:
“As a Benicia resident and the safety manager at the refinery, I know the truth and I can speak for everyone who works in our refinery.”
More “truth- telling “about big oil and California politics for the community to contemplate…
From the article below:
How Big Oil Bought Sacramento
“A ground breaking report released on April 1, 2014 by the ACCE Institute and Common Cause reveals that Big Oil spent $123.6 million to lobby elected officials in California over the past 15 years, an increase of over 400 percent since the 1999-2000 legislative session, when the industry spent $4.8 million.”
The report explains how key members of Big Oil. including Chevron, Exxon, Aera Energy and Occidental Petroleum, are some of the largest corporations in California. “And these big corporations spend big time,” Richardson and Swanbeck note.
“The top five oil and gas industry campaign contributors from 1999 to 2013 were Chevron, $71.2 million; Aera Energy, $33.8 million; Occidental, $14.5 million; ConocoPhillips, $6.4 million; and Tesoro $3.4 million. Big Oil spent a whopping $143.3 million on political candidates and campaigns, nearly $10 million per year, over the past 15 years.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/14/how-big-oil-bought-sacramento/
Will claimed (via a quote):Big Oil spent $123.6 million to lobby elected officials in California over the past 15 years, an increase of over 400 percent since the 1999-2000 legislative session, when the industry spent $4.8 million.”
Looks like these guys were not accountants or math majors.
How does one go from 4.8 million per year to $8.2 million per year and call that a 400% increase?
How about stating how much was spent over the same time period by unions, many of them public employee unions, to lobby Sacramento? My quick search shows that the unions are outspending all other lobbyists. Why in fact do public unions need to lobby at all? Are we not being generous enough with our tax dollars?