Keeping the Bay Area Clean of Dirty Oil | Communities for a Better Environment

Oil refinery

– – – Oil Pipeline

– – – Proposed pipeline

Oil transfer facility

Rail project

Last month, Chevron announced an expansion of its refinery in Richmond, California, in a new Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). CBE is rallying our members and allies to analyze this new DEIR.

Chevron refers to the project as a “modernization,” but it seems that the primary goal of the project is to expand refinery capacity in order to process dirtier, higher sulfur crude oil. This is misleading to the public and hinders informed public decision making. Chevron’s original refinery expansion was rejected by three Republican judges in 2010 for misleading the Richmond community about the central purpose of the project.

Richmond is once again at the center of a storm of new climate-destructive projects that are popping up throughout the Bay Area and California (refer to the interactive map above). So far Richmond, Benicia, Rodeo, and Pittsburgh have seen Big Oil try to expand their refineries and propose new projects that would transport dirty oil by rail throughout the Bay Area. Residents are concerned that these projects will endanger communities’ and workers’ health and safety, and will increase toxic emissions.

We have been working with various agencies and allies: the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) on their proposed regulation that would prioritize environmental health and safety when refineries transport, then process dirty crude oil. The Governor’s Refinery Taskforce, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, and labor and community groups to ensure that communities’ and workers’ health and safety isn’t sacrificed. Richmond needs more local community health benefits, not more climate emissions.

For more information, contact Andrés Soto at (510) 282-5363. Details on ongoing activities here.

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