All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent

Benicia officials embrace refinery regulations despite possible Valero lawsuit

The council supported passing an industrial safety ordinance, despite concerns about legal challenges from Valero.

The Valero Benicia refinery. Photo by Scott Morris.

By Natalie Hanson, The Vallejo Sun, Feb 06, 2025

BENICIA – Benicia officials expressed support for an ordinance that would regulate businesses like the Valero Refinery at a meeting Tuesday, despite concerns about possible legal challenges from Valero.

The latest draft of a proposed Industrial Health and Safety Ordinance that would monitor and audit “high hazard facilities” like the refinery was presented to Benicia City Council on Tuesday night.

Numerous public commenters expressed strong support for the ordinance, which the council expects to take up for a vote in a few weeks. The council made a few last tweaks to the ordinance that has been developed over more than a year.

Councilmember Kari Birdseye suggested that city staff make two revisions: to mention all agencies by name that the ordinance might affect, and add language requiring transparency of how much the city has paid using collected fines from all relevant businesses. Staff will bring the ordinance back at a future meeting.

While Valero was the major concern, the ordinance would apply to at least 12 facilities in the city, such as Interstate Batteries at 535 Getty Court and the Benicia Water Treatment Plant at 100 Water Way.

Public interest in better regulating Valero was particularly pronounced on the heels of an incident Saturday at the Martinez refinery in Contra Costa County, which is about 7 miles from Benicia. A hydrocarbon material leak at the Martinez Refining Company caused a fire that injured six people and triggered a health advisory.

Valero has had its own recent controversies as well. The company didn’t meet Bay Area Air Quality Management District requirements to monitor and report fugitive gasses from their operating equipment. Its refinery has been the site of several air pollution incidents, such as a 15-year leak of 2.7 tons of airborne toxins, for which the refinery paid a record $82 million to the air district last year.

However, Mayor Steve Young said he doesn’t consider Valero worse than other large oil refineries in the Bay Area.

“There are worse operators than Valero, as we just saw across the river,” Young said, referring to the Martinez Refining Company. “They are not the enemy, and they are not bad operators, but they obviously have some safety issues that we are trying to address.”

Benicia fire Chief Josh Chadwick said in a report to the council Tuesday that Benicia, as the only Bay Area city without an industrial safety ordinance, needs a program to better audit businesses producing potential health risks to nearby communities.

Chadwick said that recent incidents at “high-hazard facilities” showed the need for additional oversight. “Especially given what happened over the last weekend, it’s really essential for the public to understand that no regulation is going to completely eliminate the risk of industrial incidents,” Chadwick said.

The ordinance’s third draft specifically requires that, following an incident at one of these facilities, the city may audit and inspect the site, and the company must issue an Incident Notification Report within 72 hours. The city would then be able to publish the final investigation report on its website, with the ability to issue consequences such as fines or other penalties if a business refuses to comply.

But enacting the ordinance may jeopardize a revenue source for the cash-strapped city. Under a voluntary cooperation agreement, Valero currently pays $331,320 annually to the city. Under the new ordinance, that agreement would be moot, requiring an independent consultant to help the city create a new fee schedule. And Valero will likely sue over the ordinance if passed, Young said, which is why he’s concerned about passing it without an agreement in hand.

Councilmember Lionel Largaespada said he believes the city is entitled to strong regulations over industries working within its limits, but he advocated for tightening its language to be very specific about businesses and fees collected from them.

“Wherever we can be crystal clear about something, I think it only makes this ordinance better,” he said.

Councilmember Terry Scott disagreed, saying the city has spent more than a year on the ordinance draft and Valero has already responded to it in “a fairly threatening manner.”

“Local control matters. Many times we’ve asked them, ‘Come to the table,’” Scott said. “I think we can give them the opportunity in the next several weeks to send us another letter. Why do we have to go to them and establish another session to review the document with them?”

Birdseye also disagreed over whether to allow Valero to sit in on the independent auditing authority as a business owner given the potential conflict of interest. She opposed allowing Valero to have any influence, saying, “It is the fox in the henhouse.”

Benicia officials have already heard lots of feedback from the public about the matter, including from 178 people who responded to surveys between March 25 and May 19. Many people turned out Tuesday night, speaking for more than an hour, with most pleading with the city to pass the new version of the ordinance.

Some mentioned the potential for cancer and other health impacts which could result from toxic gas releases, while others pointed out how much stronger a safety ordinance can make local authorities seeking to protect and notify people as quickly as possible.

“This has been an issue that’s so important to Benicia,” resident Kathy Bennett said.

She added that the Martinez incident Saturday reflected the importance of having a safety ordinance in place.

“Because of there being an ISO in place in Contra Costa County, it did improve prevention and protection and responses, notifications and advisories to the community,” Bennett said. “And as we’ve also seen in the recent Los Angeles fires, an entire community can be destroyed in a single horrific event.”

“The big elephant in the room is Valero,” resident Diana Smith said. “But it’s been brought up that you have at least 12 facilities here that need that oversight. And Valero likes to come along and threaten us. How many millions of dollars would it take … to clean up that refinery?”

It is not yet clear when staff will bring the revised ordinance back to the council for a vote.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that no vote was scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting, which was for informational purposes and to correct Diana Smith’s name. ​​

Proud to Be a Benician: Our Community Comes Together, Birdseye Hits a Bullseye, and Great Scott!

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, “Benicia and Beyond” column in the Benicia Herald, Feb 9, 2025

 Stephen Golub, A Promised Land – America as a Developing Country

This past Tuesday’s City Council meeting considered for the first time a nearly final draft of an industrial safety ordinance (ISO) that will help protect our city against toxic emissions, fires and explosions from hazardous facilities here, particularly but not only the Valero refinery.

I’ve never been so proud to be a Benician. I’d guess 80-90 people packed the Council Chambers at City Hall, with about 29 others Zooming in. The large majority comprised folks whom I’d never seen or heard speak up on this issue. The entire crowd seemed to support the unanimous pro-ISO consensus among the 30-plus speakers who ranged from expert engineers to laypersons with kids to protect.

One such engineer, a Valero retiree, didn’t doubt refinery employees’ personal commitments to safety, but pointed out that refinery management is under extraordinary pressure to reduce costs. He emphasized that the ISO could actually help the current refinery engineers maintain safety. (I’ll again state my respect and affection for our Valero-employed friends and neighbors in Benicia, and distinguish them from the huge Texas-based corporation that owns the refinery and calls the shots.)

A parent who attended the meeting with his (I assume) wife and toddler, chimed in to favor the ordinance. Several persons prefaced their remarks by saying “I didn’t intend to speak,” then went on to describe their concerns and support. At least  one speaker pointed out that if Valero had an accident like last weekend’s huge Martinez fire and if the wind were blowing the wrong way, our entire town could have been endangered.

All in all, our community came together in numbers and passion spread across a spectrum of perspectives, but united in an unprecedented way in support for the ISO.

Valero representatives did not attend the meeting.

The big news emerging from the meeting is that Mayor Steve Young declared his backing for the ISO for the first time. Vice Mayor Trevor Macenski and Council Member Lionel Largaespada hinted at similar support; Largaespada, whose election campaigns Valero had indirectly backed through political action committees in the past, voiced a belief in strong industrial regulation and oversight.

Kudos to Young for his endorsement of the measure; this would seem to  ensure a Council majority for passage, though not counting our chickens before they hatch comes to mind. Let’s hope Macenski and Largaespada join him.

Speaking of kudos: pro-ISO Council Members Kari Birdseye and Terry Scott, who along with Fire Chief Josh Chadwick and other City staff had worked tirelessly to on the ISO for over a year, played particularly powerful roles in the Council meeting’s deliberations.

Birdseye hit the bullseye in a number of illuminating exchanges with fellow Council members. For instance, when Largaespada suggested instructing City staff to review certain administrative and other details (which could in effect delay a final vote on the ISO indefinitely), she pointed out that tremendous work had already gone into thrashing out details in the document and that it was time to move ahead. (As a former New York City government management analyst and international development policy analyst, I couldn’t agree more; you can work forever on tweaking a document and never reach closure.)

Birdseye similarly pushed back successfully and forcefully when it was suggested that the Council approve formal ex officio (non-voting) membership on the ISO’s citizen Oversight Commission for Valero or other regulated businesses. As she asserted, we don’t want “the fox in the henhouse.”

Scott had his own “Great Scott!” moments. Young suggested that Valero be consulted yet again to ascertain whether the ISO could be altered to address its concerns. In response, Scott pointed out the many, many times that the City had sought constructive Valero input over the course of over a year of ISO preparation, only to be met repeatedly by dozens of pages of legalistic criticism and unhelpful feedback. He also noted that Valero had not even attended Tuesday’s Council meeting.

There are miles to ago and at least two additional Council meetings to hold before it  finally votes on the ISO – which, it should be noted, is the kind of ordinance every other Bay Area refinery community has. Lots could go wrong, but so much could go right. I’ll save that for another day.

For today, I’ll just say that if Texas-based Valero seeks to block the ISO, it will be taking on not just a city but a very motivated community. Last Tuesday’s Council meeting proved that.


Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

 

 

Trump on DEI – he is promoting white Christian Nationalism

(From BenIndy contributor Roger Straw: Professor Eddie Glaude is a favorite author and one of my heros. His clarity on issues of U.S. history and culture and the reality of longstanding and pervasive racism in the U.S. is inspiring and challenging – and dead on righteous and true. Listen to his recent interview…and note my transcription below.)

White nationalist agenda: Professor slams Trump’s racist, sexist DEI comments

 Chris Jansing Reports, MSNBC on YouTube: Professor Eddie Glaude interview 31 Jan 2025

Partial transcript, by Roger Straw, Benicia Independent, Professor Eddie Glaude on 31 Jan 2025:

1:24
It’s important for us to take Donald Trump at his word. There is no evidence to suggest that diversity had anything to do with the loss of 67 people. And what you see, in no uncertain terms, is the way DEI is being used for a white Christian Nationalist agenda. This had nothing to do with merit. This has everything to do, to my mind – because yesterday revealed it – because there’s no evidence to correlate these two considerations. He’s not interested in merit. The assumption is, that if you have women, if you have black people or brown people, if you have a diverse workforce, that by definition, the standards have been compromised. That is a racist, a sexist view.

So what does it mean, Chris, that people are taking this seriously? If we understand it for what it is, an item in a white Christian Nationalist agenda, and you see businesses and government following suit, what are we to conclude? So I think yesterday was quite revealing, and the policies and the decisions that are being made now are as revealing as well.

3:08
I mean, how many McKinsey reports do we have to cite about the value and the power of a diverse workforce? Of a diverse leadership team? So we know that’s the truth. We know that’s to be the case. So what we’re seeing here, or witnessing here, is the capitulation to a white Nationalist agenda. And I want to stop dancing around this, Chris. We need to understand what we are confronting. We need to understand what the tattoos mean on Pete Hegseth. We need to understand what this particular decision is actually revealing. CRT, DEI, ‘woke’ – all of this is aimed at cultivating and stoking white grievance. And if we keep dancing around it, and keep capitulating to it, we’re going to find ourselves, shall we say, harkening back to the days where people like me supposedly knew our place – and people like you, Chris.

6:04
We have to be clear about our values. We have to be clear about who we believe ourselves to be. What is the nature of the America that he’s putting forward? What does it mean that for a large number of our fellows, that we have to endure this sort of view? Right? And what are its implications for the very way in which this country goes about its business? I mean, we are barreling towards the 250th anniversary of the nation. And here we are, grappling with the contradiction that has haunted this place since its founding. We have a president who believes that this country must be a white nation in the vein of old Europe. He talks about immigration, Chris, but we know birthright citizenship has nothing to do with the “crisis at the border” (quote unquote). It has everything to do with great replacement theory. We have to start being honest with what’s in front of us. Because if we’re not being honest, we’re being complicit. And so we’ve got to get clear about the values that animate the very country we claim to be so committed to.

VIDEO – The 2025 Benicia Martin Luther King Day Celebration

MLK Day in Benicia 2025

(See below for timing of detailed video highlights.)

Benicia’s 2025 MLK Day Celebration was held at
Community Congregational UCC on January 20.

Highlights of the celebration with links…

  • An MLK Poetry Collage voiced by 8 local and nearby poets (at minute 5:11);
  • The gathered community in song led by the Rev. Kim Kendrick (12:40 and 46:40);
  • Benicia’s engaging storyteller Linda Wright, portraying Coretta Scott King (15:41);
  • Brandon Green reading his stunningly poignant poem “Sometimes I Dream” (43:55);
  • Honored speakers
    • Benicia Unified School District Superintendent Damon Wright (51:42)
    • Benicia Mayor Steve Young (59:06).
  • We also heard from Patricia Schmidt Hunter, president of the Vallejo chapter of the NAACP (1:12:27),
  • And enjoyed a pickup choir singing Deborah Shanks’ new arrangement of Charles Albert Tinley’s song of courage and hope, “The Storm Is Passing Over” (1:21:50).
  • Benicia High School seniors Jaden Bleasdale and Vaughn McDevitt gave a generational voice to Dr. King’s words of challenge (1:25:49).

And in closing: Courage in Challenging Times, “We Shall Overcome”

  • It was notable that the 2025 national holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fell on the same day as the U.S.’ 47th Presidential Inauguration. See introductory comments by the Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast at minute 48:31.
  • Many in attendance reported coming with strong emotions of fear and anxiety over the coming 4 years – and leaving with a renewed sense of community, solidarity and hope. The celebration closed with a forceful statement led by our host and event coordinator, Rev. Mary Susan Gast (1:28:47): “A simple but powerful phrase came into use in Brasil by those acting for the social good and opposing the Bolsonaro regime. En portugues: ninguém solta a mão de ninguém. ‘No one let go of anyone’s hand.’ An idea of solidarity, that we are committed to stick together, that, together, we shall overcome.”
  • On this note and to end our time together, we all joined hands and sang “We Shall Overcome” (1:30:16).

>> Announcement for the event, posted here on 16 Jan 2025:

BENICIA COMMUNITY
MLK DAY CELEBRATION

Monday, January 20, 2025
7 pm • 1305 West 2nd St.

Honoring Dr. King in story, recollection, song, and commitment. All are welcome.

“In these turbulent days, when fear and doubt are mounting high, give us broad visions, penetrating eyes and power of endurance.”

On Monday, January 20, 2025 Benicia’s 6th public observance of Martin Luther King Day will be held at 7 p.m. at Community Congregational UCC, 1305 West 2nd St. All who attend will be encouraged to reflect, sing together, and share their particular reasons for honoring Dr. King “in these turbulent days.” In this way we will sustain one another with the “power of endurance.”

Acclaimed storyteller Linda Youngblood Wright will portray Coretta Scott King, lifting up Dr. King’s insights into turbulent days and the ongoing struggle for justice. Local civic leaders, including Mayor Steve Young and Superintendent of Benicia Unified Schools, Dr. Damon Wright, will offer context and vision for the days ahead, along with Vallejo NAACP President Patricia Schmidt Hunter, Civil Rights attorney Brandon Greene, and others.

A pick-up choir will get together at 6 p.m. to rehearse “The Storm Is Passing Over” before singing it at the program. Email msgast45@gmail.com to request an advance copy of the music.


Flyer for the event (click to download):