Monday meeting requires RSVP
Valero Benicia Refinery engineers will speak Monday at a public meeting on the refinery’s Crude-by-Rail Project and Benicia’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that was released June 17.
“Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion of the DEIR,” refinery officials said in an announcement of the meeting.
Independent experts also have been invited to speak about the environmental report and to answer audience questions.
The project, which needs a use permit from Benicia as well as permission from some Bay Area regulatory agencies, first was proposed early in 2013.
The refinery wants to extend Union Pacific Railroad tracks onto its property so crude oil may be brought to the refinery by rail tank car.
The oil brought in by the rail cars would be substituted for some deliveries that currently arrive by transoceanic tanker ship, and would give the Benicia refinery access to North American crude supplies.
The refinery has said — and the DEIR has concurred — that bringing in crude by rail would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Benicia area.
That’s because any emissions generated by trains would be offset by reducing the emissions by tanker ship, the DEIR noted.
However, when the trains emit carbon-based gases in other areas of the state as they travel to and from Benicia, there is no offsetting reduction of other emissions, the DEIR reported — resulting in a “significant” and “unavoidable” impact to the area’s air quality.
Proponents of the project have spoken of the refinery’s award-winning safety program, economic contributions to the city and the refinery’s need to remain competitive in the market, as well as the temporary and permanent jobs the project would bring to Benicia.
Opponents have worried that the refinery would bring in the sulfur-rich, heavy sour crude from Canadian tar sands or the light, sweet but volatile crude from the Bakken formation of the upper Midwest, mostly found in North Dakota.
They also have questioned the cumulative effects of Valero joining other Bay Area refineries in bringing in the volatile fluids, and have expressed concern that railroads are governed primarily by federal regulators, not state or local agencies, removing local authority to request or mandate changes.
One local group, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, will have its own workshop Saturday at 1 p.m. at Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St., to explain the California Environmental Quality Act and the procedures governing review of Valero’s proposed project.
Among those at the workshop will be attorney Roger Lin of Communities for a Better Environment, who will outline CEQA requirements for large-scale projects, and other community organizers who will describe how to comment on Valero’s project.
Valero Benicia Refinery’s meeting, at which its engineers and independent experts will describe the rail project, will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Ironworkers Union Local 378, 3120 Bayshore Road.
Because seating is limited, those who want to attend Monday’s meeting need to reserve space by calling the refinery at 707-654-9745 or by emailing info@beniciaCBR.com.
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More information from “independent experts”—
From the above article: “Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion …”
From the post below: more information for our appointed and elected leaders past and present; as well as our citizenry and Valero engineers to contemplate…
“Scientists Call for Moratorium on Tar Sands
Group argues that North American governments must consider ‘cumulative’ costs to environment, human health”
The culmulative effects of tar sands development—from environmental degradation to transportation to emissions from burning—must be determined before Canada or the United States approve any more projects,a group of scientists argue…”
— The group continues:
” When judged in isolation, the costs, benefits and consequences of a particular oil-sands proposal may be deemed acceptable. But impacts mount with multiple projects. The cumulative effects of new mines, refineries, ports, pipelines, railways and a fleet of transoceanic supertankers are often at odds with provincial, state, federal or international laws protecting clean water, indigenous rights, biodiversity and commitments to control carbon emissions.”
“The scientists say that current debate which presents each pipeline proposal as an “ultimatum” between environmental costs and economic success “artificially restricts discussions to only a fraction of the consequences of oil development.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/25-8
More information from “independent experts”—
From the above article: “Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion …”
From the post below: more information for our appointed and elected leaders past and present; as well as our citizenry and Valero engineers to contemplate…
“California trying to catch up to dangers of crude oil shipped on railroads”
“Crude oil rail shipments have increased 506 percent in 2013 to 6.3 million barrels, according to a report by the state Inter-agency Rail Safety Working Group released June 10. That number could increase to 150 million barrels of oil in 2016, it said. Petroleum spills on railroads in California increased from 98 in 2010 to 182 in 2013, according to the Office of Emergency Services.”
“The regulatory effort falls on the California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey.”
“I’m not enthusiastic about having tens of thousands of tank cars running around California because accidents are inevitable,” Peevey said at the workshop. “There’s been a huge increase in volume and we have to step up our awareness and activities, in cooperation with the federal government, but the feds have the ultimate responsibility.”
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_26034430/state-trying-catch-up-dangers-crude-oil-shipped
More information from “independent experts”—
From the above article: “Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion …”
From the post below: more information ( lets talk Bakken crude) for our appointed and elected leaders past and present; as well as our citizenry and Valero engineers to contemplate…
“Conventional crude on the surface never ever explodes, let alone vaporizes people like Hiroshima,” Smith says. (Five of the 47 people killed in Lac-Mégantic were never found.)
Smith and a pair of colleagues drove up to Lac-Mégantic, where they took samples of the oil from the Chaudiere River. The samples were then tested at an independent lab in Ohio, and later shared with a small group of scientists, including a visiting researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The results showed very high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the oil. Unsatisfied with the lack of information on the characteristics of Bakken crude – and unable to get answers – Smith took a trip to North Dakota and obtained samples of oil from a landowner with an oil well on his property. As he pumped oil out of the ground, Smith says, he could hear the gases escaping. Smith returned to North Dakota after the train collision outside of Casselton and spent 36 hours documenting the spill and taking samples.
“Smith now has conducted detailed analyses of Bakken crude from the three accident sites in Quebec, North Dakota, and Alabama, along with baseline data. He says he is the only outside expert to have done so and has shared those lab results with Earth Island Journal. Even government agencies – including the US Department of Transportation (DOT), which is tasked with regulating oil by rail transport – have been largely kept in the dark about the qualities that make Bakken crude so volatile as well as how it varies throughout the formation. “Despite the energy industry making assurances to DOT more than two months ago, we still lack data we requested and that energy stakeholders agreed to produce,” a Department of Transportation spokesperson told Reuters in March.
“All the samples collected and tested by Smith share the same high levels of VOCs and alkane gases in what Smith says are exceptional combinations. According to Smith, 30 to 40 percent of Bakken crude is made up of toxic and explosive gases. Typically these gases are separated out of the crude oil before transport. A recent report by the Pulitzer Prize-winning website Inside Climate News speculates that because of the whirlwind pace of production in North Dakota and the absence of processing facilities, volatile gases like propane are not being removed at the wellhead.”
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about Bakken crude, Smith says. This includes the presence of metals, radioactive materials, and gases. Because of the varying depths of the Bakken formation, two wells a mile apart can produce crude oil with very different characteristics. This makes sampling and testing especially tricky. It also makes industry cooperation essential. ”
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/warning_highly_flammable/
Broken record. I’m actually leaning toward supporting this Valero project based on the completely meritless objections of Will Gregory and his cohort.
More information from “independent experts”—The citizens of South Portland, Maine (Population 25,000)
From the above article: “Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion …”
From the post below: more information for our appointed and elected leaders past and present; as well as our citizenry and Valero engineers to contemplate…
“In Stand Against Big Oil, Small Maine City Moves to Ban Tar Sands”
“Coastal Maine residents are pushing to formally prohibit tar sands from being shipped from their port”
“Over 200 people wearing matching sky-blue tee-shirts flooded a city council meeting in South Portland on Wednesday night to cheer a presentation on a proposed ordinance that would prohibit the bulk loading of crude oil—including tar sands—as well as new infrastructure for such purposes within city limits.”
“Backers of the legislation, known as the Clear Skies Ordinance, say tar sands transport through their city would devastate their waterfront, unleash toxic air pollution, and risk dangerous spills.”
The Clear Skies Ordinance to block tar sands emerged from a six-month-long public process launched by South Portland’s City Council. It was drafted by a committee of appointed land-use experts and is slated for further consideration by the city council and planning board, with a vote slated for late-July.”
Robert Selling of Protect South Portland told Common Dreams that he is “extremely hopeful” that this ordinance. He emphasized that the draft ordinance was met with “enthusiastic response” and “standing ovations” at Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think it’s going to be a model for other communities,” he said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/26-4
Are Will Gregory, Roger Straw and Marilyn Bardet the only three people who object to this project? Beginning to feel that way …
More information from “independent experts”—
From the above article: “Valero remains committed to informing the community about the project and to promoting public discussion …”
From the post below an excerpt, i.e. “more information” for our appointed and elected leaders past and present; as well as our citizenry and Valero engineers to contemplate…
Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr.
State Capitol, 1st Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: Doubling the rate of greenhouse gas reductions by 2030
“The doomsday prophets of the fossil fuel industry have been proven wrong for decades as California progresses towards a renewable future with a growing clean energy economy, consumer savings, and improvements in the air we all breathe. California is a model for US federal policy and is linked by collaboration with many cities, states and foreign nations. Forty years of history shows that only if California leads will the United States follow. It is imperative to create a California model on the challenging road to the next global climate negotiations in 2015. We believe the vision of an eventual 100% renewable resource future will inspire this generation to take whatever steps are needed to save our planet.”
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/message-to-gov-brown/