Lights for Liberty vigils are planned Friday across the Bay Area and United States (Shutterstock)SOLANO COUNTY, CA — Residents of Benicia, Vacaville and many other Bay Area cities are planning to take part in Lights for Liberty vigils Friday, July 12 as part of worldwide protests against detention camps at the U.S.-Mexico border. The vigils are targeting reports of inhumane conditions in the camps, mass deportation and deaths at the border.According to a release from Santa Cruz Indivisible, as of Wednesday there were over 689 registered Lights for Liberty events on Friday planned around the world. Most events are asking participants to bring a flashlight, an electric candle or a phone.In Benicia, residents are meeting from 7 -9 p.m. at the Gazebo in the Park at 1st Street.The Vacaville vigil begins at at 8 p.m. at 1 Town Square.
In Napa, community members are asked to meet at 8 p.m. at Soscol Avenue and 1st Street in the Oxbow Commons area.
Petaluma residents are gathering from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Petaluma Regional Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive.
A Santa Rosa vigil is planned at 7 p.m. at the Courthouse Square.
In Davis, a vigil is planned from from 7 -9 p.m. at Central Park, 401 C St.
The Concord gathering will be held from 7:30-9 p.m. at Todos Santos Plaza, 2151 Salvio St.
Oakland will see at least two separate vigils: one at City Hall and another at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater. The City Hall vigil has over 40 sponsors and will begin at 5 p.m. The Lake Merritt vigil will begin at 7:30 p.m.
San Franciscans will also get multiple chances to participate in a Lights for Liberty vigil. Interfaith leaders will host an 11:30 a.m. event outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices at 630 Sansome St.
Another San Francisco vigil will be held at 7 p.m. at the Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround.
San Jose’s Lights for Liberty event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at City Hall Plaza, 200 East Santa Clara St.
A Santa Cruz vigil is planned at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.
According to the Lights for Liberty website, vigils will also be held in Monterey, Novato, Pacifica, Palo Alto and Redwood City.
Candlelight Vigil, Friday, July 12, 7-9pm, City Park
Lights for Liberty poster – download and distribute!
Lights for Liberty – Benicia (L4L Benicia) and co-sponsor Progressive Democrats of Benicia invite the public to a Candlelight Vigil from 7-9 PM on Friday July 12th, 2019 at the Benicia City Park Gazebo on 1st Street, as part of a nationwide mobilization against the Trump administration’s human detention camps.
On Friday July 12th, 2019, L4L Benicia will join Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps, which will bring thousands of Americans to detention camps across the country, into the streets and into their own front yards, to protest the inhumane conditions faced by refugees.
As of today, Lights for Liberty vigils are scheduled in over 340 locations around the United States and the world, with new locations being added daily.
Beginning at 7 p.m. on July 12th, advocates, activists and impacted persons will speak on the issue of human detention camps in the United States. At 9 p.m., around the country and around the world, participants will light candles in a silent vigil for all those held in US detention camps to bring light to the darkness of the Trump administration’s horrific policies.
“We shine a light on the inhumane treatment of migrants and refugees by the current administration. To be silent is to be complicit. To sit this out is to be complacent. Now is a time to stand for what is best in all of us, to stop the worst of us. We must stand for one another. At New Sanctuary Coalition, we hold in our hearts a vision of a world worth fighting for,” said Ravi Ragbir, Executive Director of New Sanctuary Coalition.
“People of color are targets of this administration’s deliberately cruel immigration enforcement policies,” said Nicole Lee, co-founder of the Black Movement Law Project. “We stand vigil with Lights for Liberty and in solidarity with all those in detention camps, and against this administration’s profound racism and xenophobia.”
“I’ve been inside these camps, and the conditions are beyond description. Twenty-four adults and six children that we know of have already died as a result,” said Toby Gialluca, lawyer, activist and member of the organizing team of Lights for Liberty. “The world must take a stand against this administration and stop these camps before more lives are lost.”
About Lights for Liberty: Lights for Liberty is a loose coalition of grassroots activists, with support from long-standing immigrants’ rights organizations and other organizers. Five main events will be held on July 12th in El Paso, San Diego, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Homestead/Miami, FL. More information can be found at http://www.lightsforliberty.org.
For more information, press only L4L Benicia
Sherry Vinson
L4LBenicia at gmail.com
Progressive Democrats of Benicia
Roger Straw – L4L Lead
rogrmail at gmail.com
Ralph Dennis, Chair
redennis5156 at att.net
A view of Philadelphia Energy Solutions on June 26, 2019 in Philadelphia, PA. – DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the East Coast’s largest refinery, will close within the next month, an announcement that comes days after a series of explosions rocked the city and reverberated throughout the country.
Here’s a look back at the events that lead up the fire, which the refinery’s CEO said Wednesday “made it impossible” to “continue operations.”
2012
The formation: The South Philly complex, which is technically two different refineries, dates back more than a century. Sunoco acquires both refineries, and transferred the complex in 2012 to a joint venture between Sunoco and the Carlyle Group. The joint venture is named Philadelphia Energy Solutions.
January 22, 2018
Bankruptcy: Philadelphia Energy Solutions LLC files a bankruptcy plan in an effort to restructure $525 million of debt and bring in new owners, pointing the finger toward the rising cost of renewable energy credits for its financial distress.
[Editor: In addition to coverage of the current news story, KQED’s Ted Goldberg presents here an excellent summary of Benicia/Valero issues over the last 3 years. – R.S.]
After Two Major Refinery Accidents, Valero and Benicia Take Steps To Work Better Together
The Valero refinery in Benicia. (Craig Miller/KQED)
Benicia officials are set to consider a plan designed to keep the city and its residents better informed when the town’s largest employer, the Valero refinery, has problems.
The City Council on Tuesday plans to vote on an agreement with the company aimed at establishing a stronger air monitoring network, improving communication and giving the public more access to information about the facility.
The vote comes three months after a series of serious refinery malfunctions and in the wake of a battle over operations at the facility that spilled over into the Solano County city’s last council election.
The malfunction led to a significant release of soot and smoke that prompted a brief health advisory and a more than 40-day shutdown of the facility — a closure that contributed to last spring’s increase in gasoline prices.
Under the new proposal up for a vote on Tuesday, Valero would pay $278,000 a year to fund a division chief position at the Benicia Fire Department. The person who holds that job would work as a public liaison and be the point of contact for residents who have concerns or complaints about releases from the refinery. Valero would respond to the division chief’s “reasonable requests for information.”
The proposal also calls for Valero to give risk management and safety plans to the city, provide the Fire Department with incident reports 72 hours after significant refinery malfunctions and hand over investigative reports to city officials. The city would also work to create a “single, easy” place where residents can find such reports.
The agreement also promises improved air monitoring by Valero.
Last November, the company completed installation of a set of air monitors along parts of the fence line of its refinery. But after the releases in March, the site that publishes the fence line data included a warning that all of its measurements should be considered “questionable until further notice” because several of its parts required adjustments.
City staff say Valero plans to build, install and maintain more air monitors along its northwest boundary at a cost of $1.5 million. The company is also expected to spend $460,000 on adding “community” air monitors that would be located in the city.
The measure has drawn mixed reaction from members of the City Council, which in the past has considered an industrial safety ordinance, or ISO, to give local officials more oversight of the refinery.
Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson called the proposal a “good first step” but wanted assurances the new air monitors would be effective.
“We clearly need to improve our air quality and acknowledge all the sources of air pollution,” Patterson said in an email Monday.
“This looks like a decent attempt to deal with all the issues that have been presented regarding air monitors and ISOs,” said Councilman Tom Campbell.
But Campbell pointed out that there’s no timetable for the proposed actions. He said if the Fire Department’s new division chief who worked as a public liaison is aggressive, the agreement would work.
“The division chief is in our seat at the table,” he said.
Councilman Steve Young called the proposal “an improvement” over current practices, but said it should be stronger.
“There should also be warnings to the public prior to any planned instances of increased flaring, as happens during turnarounds or other major maintenance activities,” Young said.
Councilmember Christina Strawbridge, the town’s vice mayor, called the agreement “well thought out and void of politics.”
A spokeswoman for Valero declined to comment on the proposal.
The March problems were the latest in a series of incidents in which the city and company have sometimes been at odds.
In September 2016, the Benicia City Council rejected Valero’s plan to build a railroad terminal that would allow trains to deliver crude petroleum to the refinery.
In May 2017, the refinery suffered a power outage that triggered the release of more than 80,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide.
Mayor Patterson, who complained that Valero and agencies that have oversight of its refinery have failed to provide the city “a seat at the table” when it comes to information about the facility’s problems, championed the measure.
But debate over the regulations set the stage for last November’s hard-fought election in which Strawbridge and another council candidate, both backed by a political action committee funded by Valero and its workers’ unions, beat an environmentalist candidate backed by Patterson.
Strawbridge, who voted against Valero’s bid to build a crude-by-rail terminal, acknowledged in an email Sunday that “tension had escalated with the refinery since the city went through that process. It intensified with last year’s election.”
The March malfunctions are the source of several ongoing investigations: Valero, the air district, state workplace regulators and Solano County inspectors are still looking into the incident.
The releases exposed weaknesses in how the air in Benicia is monitored after a refinery incident.
When soot began spewing from the refinery’s stacks, for instance, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District had to send a van to Benicia because it does not run a stationary air monitoring device in the city’s residential areas.
Since then the agency has been working on finding a monitoring site, air district spokeswoman Kristine Roselius said Monday.
District officials visited six potential sites and determined that it wants to place a new air monitor at Robert Semple Elementary School, which is three-quarters of a mile southwest of the refinery, Roselius said.
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