Benicia City Council, Crude By Rail, Local Regulation, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

CBS SF BAY AREA: Benicia Votes Against Crude Oil Train Plan

Repost from CBS SF Bay Area KPIX5, KCBS

Benicia Votes Against Crude Oil Train Plan

September 21, 2016 11:54 AM
A KPIX 5 crew captured this video of Bakken crude oil getting unloaded from a train at a rail yard in Richmond. (CBS)
A KPIX 5 crew captured this video of Bakken crude oil getting unloaded from a train at a rail yard in Richmond. (CBS)

BENICIA (KCBS) — Benicia’s city council has unanimously voted against a plan to run crude oil trains to the Valero Refinery following a four-year-long debate about the trains.

Environmentalists and officials in places east of the Bay Area are thrilled. They were worried about the potential danger of fire or oil spills with as many as a hundred tankers full of crude oil a day rolling through places like Roseville, Sacramento, and Davis. Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor told the Sacramento Bee he’s “over the moon.”

Valero currently receives crude oil by pipeline and by ship. It said it needed the railroad option to remain competitive in a changing industry.

A similar oil train decision could come Thursday in San Luis Obispo County, where Phillips 66 wants to build a transfer station for its refinery.