VALERO: City Sponsored 3-Year Delay of Closure Endangers Our Health & Promotes Risk of Benicia Remaining a Refinery Town Forever

By Dirk Fulton, May 28, 2025

The long history of fires, explosions, shelter-in-place orders, and non-stop, cancer-causing toxic air emissions demand a Valero closure in April 2026 as announced. No later.

Using financial scare tactics to delay closure until 2029 as advocated by city officials is unjust to residents and plays into the hands of Valero, which remains vague about its plans.

PROLONGING HEALTH DANGERS

Clearly, the refinery is a bad neighbor. This is demonstrated by the $82 million Air Board fine recently imposed on Valero for the 16 years of secret, toxic emissions it spewed on our town.

We now know that Valero knowingly pollutes our air with toxins 24/7, measuring as much as 2.7 metric tons daily, which incredibly is 360% over Air Board maximums. There is a worrisome correlation between Valero’s troubling refinery operations and high asthma rates among Benicia’s children and high cancer rates, especially lung cancers, among our residents. Waiting until 2029 to regain clean air and protect our health cannot be justified.

WRONGFUL SCARE TACTICS 

The scare tactics used by the city to promote a three year closure delay are overstated and misleading. As I have set forth in prior articles, the largest income to the city from Valero is approximately $8 million in real property taxes. These taxes will not immediately cease upon refinery closure as its developable land and infrastructure improvements retain high inherent value and will increase once homes are constructed along the East Second Street corridor.

Several additional revenue streams are also available upon closure to offset any financial loss. These include:

• • Years-long, multi-million dollar residential and commercial development fees;
  • income from the city’s recapture of Valero’s fifty percent (50%) allocation of our domestic water supply;
  • “ Bridge to the Future” funds from the $82 million Air Board Valero settlement, of which $58 million is assigned to Benicia to mitigate damages from years of pollution;
  • a port tariff cargo fee similar to those earned by other California port cities, such as Richmond, Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach, which could measure $13 million annually;
  • increased sales and hotel (TOT) taxes as tourism blossoms;
  • and increased real property taxes on existing homes as values appreciate once the stigma of being a “refinery town” is alleviated.

Accordingly, the city’s leaders should stop spreading bad information.

EXTENDED DELAYS HURT CHANCE TO SHUT DOWN REFINERY– POTENTIALLY FOREVER 

Valero’s future remains unclear and there are reports it is lobbying Governor Newsom to ease environmental rules. The city-advocated three-year delay in closure plays to Valero’s advantage and, conversely, to the detriment of Benicia residents. There are three negative outcomes that a multi-year delay fosters:

1. 1. Valero can change its mind, whether or not it receives regulatory concessions from the state and continue to operate the refinery indefinitely. This result is in line with statements by a former Valero CEO who publicly stated that his company’s goal was “to keep Valero Benicia open as the last refinery operating in Northern California”.
   2. Valero can sell to another refinery operator, perhaps at a discounted price, which can decide to operate the refinery indefinitely. This result is like Shell Oil’s recent sale of the Martinez refinery to PBF, a shell entity controlled by a private equity group. This has led to one environmental disaster after another, severely harming that community.
   3. Valero can repurpose the refinery as another petrochemical type of operation. This result continues the prospect of the facility being an ongoing major polluter and pushes multi-million-dollar environmental cleanup down the road indefinitely.

PLANNING FOR BENICIA’S FUTURE WITHOUT A REFINERY SHOULD OCCUR IMMEDIATELY AND BE TRANSPARENT

The price is too high for the city to delay the closure of its major polluter for three additional years. Rather than “kicking the can down the road”, risking our health and the chance to close the refinery for good, the city should instead immediately hold community public hearings subject to the Brown Open Meetings Act to create a vision for Benicia without a refinery. This contrasts with private “Task Force” meetings not open to public input or scrutiny that can drag on indefinitely.

Dirk Fulton, Lifelong Benicia resident
Former Solano County Planning Commissioner, Benicia Vice-Mayor, City Councilman & School Board President