BREAKING: Valero gives notice that it will NOT sue Benicia

By Roger Straw, December 21, 2016
[Later: see also, the Sacramento Bee story.  – RS]

Benicia City Attorney announces that Valero Refinery will not sue over the City’s decision to deny Crude by Rail proposal

benicia_logoDuring announcements early in the Benicia City Council meeting last night, City Attorney Heather McLaughlin announced that Valero Refinery’s attorney has advised that the refinery does not intend to take the City to court over its decision to deny Crude by Rail.

Below is a 1½ minute video clip of City Manager McLaughlin’s four announcements on December 20.  The Valero announcement comes 4th, the final announcement.  (Note that Google Chrome viewing of City video is spotty – best viewed on Internet Explorer.)  A transcript of McLaughlin’s announcement follows below.

Transcript of Benicia City Attorney Heather McLaughlin’s Dec. 20 announcement regarding Valero’s notice that they would not file suit against the City of Benicia:

On the final item,”CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL- ANTICIPATED LITIGATION” – on the Valero case.  I put this one on here because I had word from the Valero attorney that they were thinking about filing suit against us on the Crude by Rail project.  But … I’m so happy, it’s like a best Christmas present ever…  yesterday, that Diane Sinclair called and said that they were not going to file suit against the City because they want to maintain positive relations with the City.  So I thanked them for their courtesy, in letting us know ahead of time that they were planning on it, and also letting us know ahead of time that they weren’t going to do it.  So that really eases up the work load on staff.  So thank you.

Video of the entire Council meeting may be viewed on the City’s website at http://benicia.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=829.