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Benicia City Council, ISO Working Group, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Energy Corporation, Valero's Community Advisory Panel (CAP)

CALL TO ACTION: February 4 is Crucial for Benicia Kids’ Health and Safety

Valero’s Benicia Refinery, located near homes, schools, and parks, has placed – and will continue to place – residents at risk during dangerous incidents or regulatory violations. Despite years of accidental spills and emissions as well as many documented violations (some egregious), Valero has maintained its historic hostility to both citizen- and City-led proposals for local oversight. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub.

 

By Stephen Golub, January 26, 2025

On Tuesday, February 4, we can help protect Benicia’s kids and grandkids and all the rest of us by attending the 6 pm City Council meeting, in person or via Zoom, to show support for the draft Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) that the Council will soon vote on. The measure can reduce the risks of toxic emissions, fires and explosions at the Valero Refinery and other covered businesses. You can supplement your attendance by emailing your support to Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Trevor Macenski  and Council Members Kari Birdseye, Lionel Largaespada and Terry Scott, at

Why is this so vital? Well…

Imagine you had a neighbor who had a backyard business that they repeatedly said was safe. But lo and behold, you found out that for many years the business had emitted toxic fumes dangerous to the health of your kids and grandkids and yourself.

What’s more, this was by no means the only such hazardous action by them. And some such actions also pose the risk of fire and explosions.

After all this, the neighbor sends a letter that could be seen as a threat to sue you if you seek firmer guarantees than a supposed safety-enhancing understanding you two had, which in fact had failed to ensure safety from their fumes. And folks affiliated with them reject initial attempts to discuss such guarantees. (But the neighbor does buy your kids little league uniforms as a gesture of goodwill.)

Would you feel safe? Would you want more assurance to protect the kids from toxic fumes, fires and explosions?

That’s pretty much the choice Benicia faces. On February 4, the City Council will start to consider the ISO. The measure requires that the Valero Refinery and other potentially dangerous businesses provide us with more information about their operations and accidents, information that could protect our kids and all of us from dangerous emissions and potential fires and explosions.

This should be a no-brainer. Drafted with great dedication and diligence by Council Members Birdseye and Scott as well as Fire Chief Chadwick and other personnel, the ISO gives Benicia a seat at the table in knowing what’s going on.

This in turn helps prevent dangerous events. If we’d had such a seat for the past 20 years, we might have avoided 15-plus years of Valero spewing toxic emissions hundreds of times the legal limits into our air, as well as some of the numerous other violations it committed.

The need for the ISO has increased greatly recently. With a new administration in DC backed  by fossil fuel industry interests, the federal Environmental Protection Agency will almost certainly reduce its crucial role in protecting our health and safety.

Right now, all we have with Valero is a Memorandum of Understanding that the corporation can walk away from pretty easily.

The ISO  would instead be binding on and paid for by Valero and other covered businesses.

All other refinery-hosting communities in the Bay Area have such ISOs; we’re merely seeking the same sort of prevention and protection for our health and safety.

As I’ve said before, I greatly respect our valued neighbors and friends who work or worked hard at the refinery. But Valero’s Texas headquarters calls the shots. We’re the ones who suffer if something goes wrong, not those San Antonio-based  executives.

The threat of emissions, fires and explosions may seem far away. Many LA residents had similar thoughts before firestorms raced through their communities. Unlike them, we can take a specific step – the ISO – to reduce risks.

By showing up at the February 4 meeting and emailing our City Council members, we can help preserve this wonderful town that we love.

Speaking of the Council, it’s time for these dedicated public servants to stand up together for Benicians’ health and safety.

It’s time for our City leaders to lead. 

Choose Democracy, Donald Trump, Resist!

We have a message for Donald Trump

BENINDY: We will continue to live in hope and in righteous anger, with courage, with long- and short-range planning and with a persistence faithful to the constitution, to those we love and to our moral convictions…

The Benicia Independent joins the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in this hopeful message

The New York Times, 8 Nov 2024

Dear President-elect Trump:

In case you had any doubt, we are the American Civil Liberties Union. And we’re not moving to Canada.

So, rest assured that when you target immigrants, dissidents, and your political opponents – we will challenge you in the courts, at state legislatures, and in the streets.

Surely, you remember the landmark lawsuits we won against you on family separation, the U.S. Census, and immigrants’ rights – some of which were decided by judges you appointed.

During your last presidency, we brought 434 legal actions, including 250 lawsuits against your administration’s anti-civil liberties agenda.

We also mobilized the power of our more than 1 million card-carrying members into the streets, at airports, and in state capitals.

We’ve developed a comprehensive roadmap to defend our rights beginning on day one. We’re not new to this.

At the ACLU, we play the long game. We’ve been around for 105 years and seen 19 presidents come and go.

That’s why any attempt to roll back the nation’s civil liberties on our watch will be hard fought and met with the full power of our resistance.

Steadfast and determined to make ours a more perfect union, we remain,

The ACLU