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BREAKING NEWS BENICIA – Valero submits plan to idle or close Benicia Refinery by 2026
Valero Energy Submits Notice of Plan to Idle or Close Benicia Refinery, Take Pre-Tax Impairment of $1.1 Billion

MarketScreener.com, April 16, 2025
(MT Newswires) — Valero Energy (VLO) said Wednesday its Valero Refining subsidiary has submitted notice to the California Energy Commission of its current plan to idle, restructure, or cease refining operations at Valero’s Benicia Refinery by the end of April 2026.
Valero said it is evaluating strategic alternatives for its other operations in California.
In connection with the evaluation, the company said it has recorded a combined pre-tax impairment charge of $1.1 billion for its Benicia and Wilmington refineries, to be treated as a special item and excluded from first quarter 2025 adjusted earnings.
Included in the amount is the recognition of expected asset retirement obligations of $337 million as of March 31, 2025, the company said.
Stephen Golub: Yes we can!…But what is Valero afraid of?
Islands of Hope

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, April 6, 2025
The waves of national bad news just keep on coming. But there are certain islands of sanity and hope in our political seas.
Some of it started on April 1 – no fooling! In Wisconsin, Democrat Susan Crawford beat her conservative opponent for the swing seat on the state’s Supreme Court by 10 points, despite Elon Musk and his minions pouring over $21 million into trying to defeat her. Also consider that day’s congressional special election results in Florida: In two deep Red districts, the Republican margin of victory collapsed compared to November – from over 30 percent to less than half of that.
And of course, there were the April 5 pro-democracy/anti-Trump protests in over 1,200 U.S. cities, as well as across Europe.
Then there’s the island of waterside sanity and beauty otherwise known as Benicia. Capping a struggle that stretches back nearly a decade and most recently entailed eighteen months of arduous efforts by Council Members Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott and Fire Chief Josh Chadwick, on April 1 the City Council unanimously approved an industrial safety ordinance (ISO).
By seeking greater accountability and transparency from the Valero Refinery and other local facilities handling hazardous materials, the ISO helps protect the health and safety of our kids, our seniors and all of us. It also ends Benicia’s odd situation as the only Bay Area refinery-hosting community that lacked such an ordinance.
The April 1 Council meeting featured dozens of ISO supporters in attendance and salient points highlighted by several of them. For instance, a Benicia-based doctor/medical professor noted the relatively high cancer and childhood asthma rates in Benicia and refinery-hosting communities elsewhere. He was careful to avoid blaming Valero in the absence of conclusive data, but voiced hope that an effective ISO could help protect Benicians’ health.
In addition, Birdseye passionately and persuasively pushed back on Mayor Steve Young’s suggestion that the Fire Chief’s examination of potential ISO fees for Valero and other covered facilities focus on recovering just 85 percent of costs. For his part, Scott eloquently articulated the reality that, even with the passage of the ISO, the fight isn’t necessarily over.
But for now, our small city’s struggle for an ISO – a fight that it once seemed we could not win – provides an invaluable lesson: Yes We Can.
So thanks to Birdseye, Scott, Young and in fact the entire Council for that unanimous pro-ISO vote. And thanks to current and former Valero employees, even if we disagree with them, for being good friends and neighbors; once again, the ISO fight is not with you, but with the Texas-based oil giant.
But speaking of that fight…
What is Valero Afraid of?
Over the past decade or so, Valero has dumped millions of dollars into political action committees and public relations efforts seeking to defeat City Council candidates who might support an ISO or otherwise stymy that kind of City oversight. Ironically, that same money could have instead more constructively covered years of the refinery’s costs for abiding by an ISO, had one been adopted earlier.
Most recently, and to put the point mildly, Valero failed to constructively engage with the City’s efforts to seek its cooperation in crafting the ordinance. And it reportedly may pursue a lawsuit seeking to block the new law.
Why such strong opposition to such a modest measure?
After all, the ISO simply seeks to ensure that the City has the necessary information about Valero’s (and other covered facilities’) operations, incidents, violations and accidents, in order to help protect Benicians’ health and safety. This would be a distinct departure from the recent 15-year period during which the refinery spewed toxic emissions hundreds of times the legal limits into our air without notifying us.
Furthermore, over the past year the original draft ISO was modified in ways making it more amenable to Valero, so that the planned Oversight Commission facilitating the law’s implementation and public information does not have enforcement powers. And again, every other Bay Area refinery operates under the rubric of such an ordinance. So why can’t Valero?
I hope that Texas-based Valero will see fit to forego a lawsuit against the City, and instead strive to be a good neighbor rather than in effect imposing punitive legal fees as we defend ourselves. But if it does launch litigation, I hope and expect that its current and former officials, managers and workers will be required to testify under oath about its operations, incidents, accidents and violations, not just in Benicia but across America. If it’s going to fight this common-sense measure so strenuously, we need to better understand what’s going on in the refinery to spark such ferocity and further necessitate the ISO.
I also hope that there’s no need to try to make Goliath suing David a national story, and that Benicia need not engage with other community, legal and environmental groups concerned about Valero’s violations and accidents across the country. In the absence of a lawsuit, I’d assume no one wants to pick such a fight.
As I’ve previously pointed out, even the very conservative Attorney General of Texas, one of the most oil-friendly states in the nation, saw fit to sue Valero in 2019 for years of serious, repeated violations – transgressions that had continued despite previous enforcement actions by Texas and federal authorities.
Though it would be naïve to consider the Texas AG a potential ally, even a quick perusal of the company’s track record turns up alarming Valero accidents spanning several U.S. locales. For instance, an environmental/personal injury law firm is looking into fires at two separate Valero Texas refineries earlier this year. Similarly, in 2021 a massive fire at its Memphis refinery spewed oil onto the ground and into a stream, as well as thousands of pounds of toxic gas into the air. There could thus be ample room for joining forces with other concerned communities if necessary.
Though I’m a lawyer, I’m neither a litigator nor PR expert. But people who understand those fields far better than I do have explained that there are strong cases to be made in courtrooms and the court of public information if necessary.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Instead of suing, be a good neighbor, Valero. That’s basically all that Benicia’s new ISO asks.

CHECK OUT STEPHEN GOLUB’S BLOG, A PROMISED LAND
SF Chron: Benicia to increase oversight of Valero refinery after major pollution problems
Benicia City Council passes Industrial Safety Ordinance in unanimous vote

San Francisco Chronicle, by Julie Johnson, April 2, 2025
Months after Bay Area regulators handed a record-setting fine for pollution violations to oil giant Valero Refining Co.’s Benicia facility, city leaders voted to establish stronger oversight over refinery emissions.
The Benicia City Council unanimously passed regulations Tuesday creating a new air quality monitoring program and requiring the refinery and other entities handling hazardous materials to promptly report emissions.
Vice Mayor Trevor Macenski said they hope to “foster a resilient business environment within Benicia while ensuring that our citizens don’t all need inhalers.”
The city’s plan is modeled after a similar ordinance in Contra Costa County, which for more than two decades has empowered county health officials to investigate potential emissions problems at three oil refineries, including Chevron, across the Carquinez Strait.
The Solano County city has lacked similar oversight power for Valero. Benicia leaders have been frustrated in recent years by revelations of emissions problems at Valero and a lack of notification from agencies charged with pollution oversight. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District waited three years to inform Benicia residents after agency staff discovered Valero was spewing illegal amounts of cancer-causing gases and chemicals into the air and had done so for 16 years.
Council Member Kari Birdseye, who campaigned on more refinery oversight when she was elected in 2022, said in an interview that the air district’s $82 million fine was a “wake-up call” for Benicia.
“Our community wants to know exactly what’s going wrong and how we can ensure those types of things don’t happen again,” Birdseye said.
The ordinance, which takes effect 120 days after the vote, allows the city to investigate pollution issues when other agencies, such as the Bay Area air quality district, state or federal agencies, aren’t conducting investigations. It also requires facilities such as the refinery to report potentially hazardous releases to the city.
The vote was unanimous despite strong opposition from some business representatives and Valero executives, who previously called the ordinance “governmental overreach.”
Valero refinery officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week.
The ordinance would also pertain to a dozen other businesses in the city, including the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants, paint company Sherwin-Williams, a chemical decontamination firm, cork supply company, and several manufacturers.
Under a current contract with the city, Valero provides the city a base amount of $331,320 annually. The ordinance would terminate that contract and replace it with fees based on how much hazardous material Valero handles. That applies to other industrial facilities that fall under the ordinance as well. The city’s new plan starts with no fees for the smallest operators and increases up to $386,260 annual fee for the largest.
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