Save the date! The California Energy Commission will be holding a public meeting on changing trends in sources of crude oil & transport at the Berkeley City College auditorium on Wednesday, June 25 at 9am (details below). An opportunity to give the CEC an earful about what they modestly term “market changes.” See p. 3 of the downloadable PDF for public comment instructions, background, etc. Basic info follows below.
California Energy Commission Workshop
RE: Crude Oil
Notice of Lead Commissioner Workshop on Trends in
Sources of Crude Oil
The California Energy Commission Lead Commissioner on the Integrated Energy Policy Report will conduct a workshop to highlight changing trends in California’s sources of crude oil with emphasis on the potential growth of crude oil transport to California by rail, and the impacts of these trends on the transportation energy market and existing government policies. The discussions will focus on existing and possible new roles of federal, state, and local government to address market changes.
Commissioner Janea A. Scott, Chair Robert Weisenmiller, and Commissioner Karen Douglas will be in attendance. CPUC President Michael R. Peevey will also be in attendance. Commissioner Scott is the Lead Commissioner for the 2014 IEPR Update and the Lead Commissioner on Transportation. Other Commissioners of the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission may attend and participate in the workshop. The workshop will be held:
June 25, 2014, 9:00 AM Berkeley City College Auditorium 2050 Center Street, Berkeley, California 94704
(Wheelchair Accessible)
Remote Access Available by Computer or Phone via WebEx™ (Instructions background, agenda, etc here)
U.S. railroads demand states keep oil shipment details secret
Some states refuse to comply with requests
The Associated Press Posted: Jun 06, 2014
Damaged rail cars in Casselton, N.D. from a train that derailed on Dec. 30, 2013. States and railroads are wrestling over whether oil shipment information can be disclosed. (Associated Press)
U.S. railroads forced to turn over details of their volatile crude oil shipments are asking states to sign agreements not to disclose the information. But some states are refusing, saying Thursday that the information shouldn’t be kept from the public.
Federal officials last month ordered railroads to make the disclosures after a string of fiery tank-car accidents in North Dakota, Alabama, Virginia and Quebec, where 47 people died when a runaway oil train exploded in the town of Lac-Mégantic.
‘If the states do not provide those signed confidentiality agreements, we will not be able to provide subsequent updated information’– spokesman for CSX railroad
The disclosures due Saturday at midnight include route details, volumes of oil carried and emergency-response information for trains hauling one million gallons or more of crude. That’s the equivalent of 35 tank cars.
BNSF, Union Pacific and CSX are seeking agreements that the information won’t be publicly shared. They said the information is security sensitive and releasing it could put them at a competitive disadvantage.
States say communities need to know
State emergency officials said communities need to know about the trains, and the proposed agreements would violate open-records laws.
“Our state statutes prohibit us from signing,” said Lori Getter with Wisconsin Emergency Management. “It will help the responders to make sure they are fully prepared and trained to respond to a potential incident. But it’s also good to let the community know.”
In addition to Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois, North Dakota, Idaho and Washington state also have declined so far to sign the agreements, according to state emergency officials. Other states have said they intend to meet the railroads’ requests.
In Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa and Oregon, the confidentiality proposals are under review by attorneys and no decision has been made, officials said. Officials in Virginia said they intend to make the information public.
U.S. crude oil shipments topped 110,000 carloads in the first quarter of 2014. That’s an estimated 3.2 billion gallons of crude and the highest volume ever moved by rail, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday. It’s spurred by booming production in the Northern Plains.
Volatile Bakken oil
The May 7 federal order covered oil shipments by rail from the Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada. The Bakken produces a light, sweet crude that is highly volatile and contains more flammable gases than heavier oils such as from the oilsands region of Canada.
Federal officials have said sharing information on Bakken shipments is crucial for local firefighters and other emergency responders to be prepared for accidents.
Railroads that fail to comply face penalties of $175,000 per day and a prohibition against moving Bakken oil. But officials indicated Thursday that there will be flexibility in how the rules are enforced.
“Although we will aggressively monitor compliance, we will also consider extenuating circumstances as railroads work with states to ensure information about the shipment of crude oil is appropriately provided,” said Federal Railroad Administration Associate Administrator Kevin Thompson.
CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the company is providing the information now and asking that the confidentiality agreements be returned with 30 days.
“If the states do not provide those signed confidentiality agreements, we will not be able to provide subsequent updated information,” Sease said. The agreements are necessary “for security reasons and for competitive reasons,” he said.
Union Pacific also was providing the information to at least some states, but officials from several states said BNSF so far has not. A BNSF spokeswoman did not immediately answer whether the railroad planned to hold back the information after Saturday’s deadline.
Louisiana and New Jersey officials said they do not intend to release the information they receive. Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain said there would be security concerns associated with releasing the routes, although the state plans to make sure local officials have the information.
Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald [Editor: … as if risks of derailment and explosion weren’t enough to worry about… – RS]
Legislation to enhance crude-by-rail safety passes House
Times-Herald staff report | 06/05/2014
Following an increase in crude oil by rail to the Bay Area, Rep. Mike Thompson has authored legislation aimed at making it safer to transport the highly flammable cargo.
The legislation, which would require an assessment of domestic refinery and rail-related infrastructure, passed the House of Representatives last week by a bipartisan vote of 345 to 59.
It’s currently in the Senate.
“Public safety is the number one priority when we’re transporting and holding crude oil and other cargo through and in our communities,” Thompson said Thursday. “This legislation will let us know if threats exist and how we can fix them.”
Thompson’s district includes three refineries, including the Valero Benicia Refinery, which is seeking approval of a major crude-by-rail terminal. The project’s environmental impact report is due out next week.
Bakken crude from North Dakota, regarded as more flammable than other crudes, is part of the mix of increased crude-by-rail shipments to California. The legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis to conduct an intelligence assessment of the safety of refinery and crude-by-rail infrastructure. After the assessment is conducted, safety recommendations would be submitted to the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Lawsuit Filed – Chevron Refinery Permit to Pollute Exposed
Today Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed suit against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for the District’s illegal permitting of the Chevron (“Modernization”) Expansion Project. CBE had previously requested the District to revoke the permit that allowed Chevron to build a Richmond refinery expansion that could increase air pollution from one of the state’s biggest industrial climate polluters without required emission prevention and environmental reviews.
“Letting oil refineries expand without requiring—or even looking for—measures to prevent the resultant air pollution threatens our health” said CBE Attorney Roger Lin.
CBE discovered that the Air District staff granted Chevron “Authority to Construct” the project without an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), public review or analysis of whether the emissions from the project will even meet EPA’s national standards for the protection of public health and welfare from harmful levels of pollutants. Chevron sought the approval despite court orders in 2009 and 2010 that invalidated its permits for a Richmond refinery project with many of the same elements. The courts found its EIR for that project failed to disclose impacts of refining lower quality oil and improperly deferred greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation.
Chevron’s new project would switch to lower quality oil, and—if unmitigated—could increase refinery GHG emissions by 725,000–890,000 tonnes/year, increase toxic emissions, and worsen a cause of Chevron’s disastrous 2012 fire, according to a revised draft City of Richmond EIR that relies largely on the Air District to mitigate project air impacts.
“First, we discovered the permit to allow the ticking time bomb of crude-by-rail with no public disclosure or environmental review. Then we discovered a permit that was stopped in the courts for a project that could be dirty, dangerous, and deadly. The Air District needs to respond with answers and act immediately to stop putting communities at risk,” demanded Vivian Yi Huang, Campaign & Organizing Director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
“Issuing air district permits prematurely before CEQA review of the project has been completed makes no sense, especially to a corporation that has demonstrated criminal negligence leading up to the August 2012 explosion and fire. Experience has shown that monitoring alone is less effective than controlling the source of emissions from the outset. We expect BAAQMD to do a better job of protecting the health and well-being of our community” said Marilyn Langlois of the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
“It’s high time the Air Board members stand up to their staff’s errors in judgment in rubber stamping Chevron’s illegal permit and revoke it immediately,” stated Denny Larson of Global Community Monitor, a resident of Richmond. Larson added: “The people of Richmond have suffered enough at the hands of Chevron and the Air District staff—it’s time for a change!”
“The health impacts of this project cannot be understated. The project calls for substantial increases in local emissions, including many chemicals that are known carcinogens. This deeply concerns me as a nurse and as a community member. The public deserves full disclosure and an environmental review,” said Deborah Burger, RN, Co-President of the California Nurses Association.
In 2011, EPA delegated permitting authority to maintain national air quality standards to the Air District. By repeatedly renewing Chevron’s permit since 2010, versus waiting for the revised and adequate EIR, and then asking Chevron to reapply for its permit under current, more protective requirements, the Air District dodged applying that delegated authority to the Project. This ignores the new review’s findings of massive potential GHG and toxic particulate matter emission increases from the project that would otherwise trigger best available technology requirements to instead reduce emissions. Those protections are basic requirements of both CEQA and clean air laws–and desperately needed in the already-overburdened communities on Chevron’s fence line.
The Richmond refinery has been among the state’s three largest GHG-emitting facilities in each of the five years when the Air Resources Board reported those emissions (2008–2012), emitting more GHG than any other California facility three of those years. Its 2012 crude unit fire that nearly killed 20 workers and sent some 15,000 residents to the hospital was caused by Chevron’s failure to heed its own workers’ warnings about corrosion from higher sulfur crude, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has found. Particulate matter air pollution from its catalytic cracker has increased to more than 1,700 pounds per day, more than 1,200 lb/day above the permitted limit, as the cat-cracker runs more oil produced from the heaviest parts of the crude stream, CBE’s review of Air District records has found. All of these impacts could worsen if the project enables Chevron to refine even lower quality oil.
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