Bay Area Air District, Benicia, California legislature, Cancer, Stephen Golub, Valero Benicia Refinery

Stephen Golub: URGENT – The State Likely Decides Benicia’s Fate Within a Week

Please Contact Lori Wilson and Other Officials Regarding Valero

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

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author. September 2, 2025. [First published in the Benicia Herald on 8/31/25.]

Before the California State Legislature session ends on September 12, the legislators and other State officials may well make crucial decisions on bills and policies regarding the Valero Benicia Refinery’s future. Benicians have barely any time to weigh in on this matter so essential to our health, safety and future, particularly by contacting State Assemblywoman Lori Wilson. She represents Benicia and plays a significant role in this process.

While there’s still a chance that Valero might depart by its self-proclaimed April 2026 deadline, it seems at least as likely that the company and the State will extend its stay by at least a few years.

I’d favor pressing for Valero to stick to that 2026 date. My main concern is that a few years could turn into many, blocking us from biting the bullet to diversify our economy and realize potential benefits such as clean air and enhanced property values in a refinery-free community. A continued presence poses demonstrated risks, including polluting our politics as well as our air. Valero’s harmful operational and advocacy track record is a testament to those risks.

For instance (and as for the most part described in far greater detail in my May 25 Benicia Independent post):

For at least 16 years, the Valero Benicia Refinery spewed toxic emissions hundreds of times the regulatory limits into the City’s air, spurring an $82 million Bay Area Air District fine. According to the Air District, from at least 2003 to 2019 the Benicia refinery committed “egregious emissions violations,” pouring into the city’s air “harmful organic compounds” containing “benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene…which cause cancer, reproductive harm and other toxic health effects.”

Valero knowingly committed these violations, yet did not  inform governmental authorities. In the same statement just cited, the Air District  explained that “refinery management had known since at least 2003 that emissions from the hydrogen system contained these harmful and toxic air contaminants but did not report them or take any steps to prevent them.”

These 16 years of violations and toxic emissions are but  one example of Valero’s hazardous track record in Benicia and across America, including Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersy, New York, Tennessee and Texas. Even the arguably oil industry-friendly Texas Attorney General sued Valero in 2019 for refinery violations there, in effect citing it as an egregious repeat offender.

Benicia’s cancer rates are far higher than those of the State and Solano County. For example, the city’s breast cancer rate is 93.7 percent higher than California’s and 35.9 percent higher than the County’s. The possible connection to the Benicia refinery is buttressed by research from around the country and world indicating elevated cancer, leukemia and asthma disease rates in refinery communities.

What hazardous plans might the Texas-based corporation push next? Valero’s potentially threatening plans are exemplified by its dangerous “crude by rail” proposal, thankfully defeated by the Benicia City Council several years ago. The project  would have brought through town on a daily basis the kinds of petroleum-carrying trains that have frequently derailed, exploded, caught fire and in one incident killed dozens in a small Quebec city.

Valero’s contributions to climate change threaten Benicia. Above and beyond its facilities’ direct environmental impact, the Texas-based corporation has played a major role in the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), which has sought to stymie policies and legislation that would limit rising sea levels and other climate changes that challenge our town. Have you noticed the First Street Green parking lot’s winter flooding? Thank Valero and the WSPA if that kind of climate change damage increasingly bedevils Benicia in years to come.

Having said all this…

If the corporation and California nonetheless decide to extend the refinery’s stay despite these and other concerns, let’s press for ironclad Valero guarantees that it will: 1) close the refinery by 2029; 2) assure severance pay and other appropriate benefits for its workers, especially our Benicia-based friends and neighbors, who bear no responsibility for the Texas-based corporation’s track record; 3) abide by all legal and moral clean-up requirements for the property, rather than pursuing bankruptcy or other options to evade its responsibilities; and 4) not sell the property to another petrochemical industry  operator, which might have as bad or worse an environmental record.

We should similarly seek State guarantees that it will 1) support Benicia’s existing Industrial Safety Ordinance; 2) not block any other local measures to protect or enhance our community’s well-being; 3) not undertake any joint venture with the firm, as that could undercut both our refinery oversight and refinery-linked revenues; and 4) not water down or overturn State, regional and local environmental regulations.

How to advocate for these and other priorities? One way is to call, email or write (via their online contact forms) to Governor Newsom (https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/), our State Senator Christopher Cabaldon (https://sd03.senate.ca.gov/contact), and, most crucially, our State Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (https://a11.asmdc.org/contact-me).

I emphasize Wilson because, as Chair of the Assembly’s Transportation Committee, she plays a central role regarding any Valero-related legislation and policies – which, again, may well be determined in the days to come.

We can also email Benicia’s City Council members, pressing them  to lobby state officials on our behalf if they’re not already doing so.

Time is growing very short. Now’s the time to act.

A few more noteworthy Benicia notes:

First, property owners should please vote for the Parks, Landscape and Lighting Assessment District (PLLAD ) plan on the ballot recently mailed to you. Funds to provide for vital services for our parks and related facilities are inadequate, not having been updated since 1989. The PLLAD will help keep Beautiful Benicia moving forward, as well as enhancing our property values regardless of whether we use those facilities.

Big kudos for City Manager Mario Giuliani for the “Mondays with Mario” session he hosted at Lucca’s Bar and Grill on August 25. For the 20 or so folks present, it was an illuminating discussion of why we need PLAAD, what’s happening with Valero and several other topics. Councilmembers Trevor Macenski and Terry Scott, and former Councilmember Tom Campbell, also usefully chipped in to the discussion. The next Monday with Mario will be on September 15 at Roundtable Pizza, 878 Southampton Rd, at 6-7 pm.

Equally big kudos to the Benicia Police for all that they do, but particularly (as reported in the Herald) for the August 21 arrest near the Lake Herman Road reservoir of an escaped fugitive wanted for ten counts of arson in Washington State. I don’t want to rush to judgment: As far as I know, we don’t know whether he was associated with recent blazes near Benicia or other details of his background. But if in fact he’s guilty of such acts, it’s good to get him off the streets – especially our streets.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

CHECK OUT STEPHEN GOLUB’S BLOG, A PROMISED LAND

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

Democracy under attack, Good Trouble, Labor Day, Local vigilance

Labor Day in Benicia – Rally on Monday, September 1, 10:30am

17 July 2025 Benicia, Photo by Mary DeShaw

Labor Day Rally, sponsored by Vallejo-Benicia Indivisible
Monday, September 1 – 10:30am – 12pm PDT
Benicia Gazebo Park, 150 Military, Benicia, CA  [MAP]

Join Indivisible Vallejo and Benicia this Labor Day as we come together in solidarity with communities across the country. Working people built this nation, and we know how to take care of one another. We will not back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the freedoms that ensure opportunity and a better life for all.
FOOD DRIVE – We’ll also be collecting donations for the Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano—help feed our neighbors and support families in need. (The Food Bank cannot accept glass containers, food one year past its ‘best by’ date, open or partially-used products, alcohol, food without nutrition labels, or any frozen or refrigerated foods.)

NON-VIOLENCE – A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

LABOR DAY RALLIES – IN BENICIA
& ALL OVER THE BAY AREA…
Benicia Gazebo, corner of First & Military Streets

>> IN BENICIA / VALLEJO: September 1, 10:30am at the Gazebo in Benicia City Park (map: First and Military Streets) – see more above.

> ALL OVER THE BAY AREA: Go to  MOBILIZE.US for info about Labor Day rallies in El Sobrante, Pittsburg and Oakland.

Nearly 1,000 ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Protests Planned Across US for 2025 Labor Day – Common Dreams

Gun control, Gun violence, Mass shootings

AMERICA IS A GUN – poem by Brian Bilston

This was published here about a year ago and getting lots of hits again today. Sad. Blessings all in Minneapolis…

One Nation, Under the Gun by David Horsey

“AMERICA IS A GUN” by Brian Bilston

England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.

Paul Millicheap, who writes as Brian Bilston, is a British poet and author. Born in Birmingham, he studied at the University of Wales, Swansea, before entering the publishing industry as a marketing manager, notably for John Wiley in Oxford. Wikipedia

Democracy under attack, Good Trouble, Labor Day, Local vigilance, May Day Strong

Nearly 1,000 ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ Protests Planned Across US for Labor Day

“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Common Dreams, by Stephen Prager, August 29, 2025

Unions and progressive organizations are planning nearly 1,000 “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations across the United States this Labor Day to protest President Donald Trump’s assault on workers’ rights.

The day of national action has been organized by the May Day Strong coalition, which includes labor organizations like the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, and National Union of Healthcare Workers, as well as advocacy groups like Americans for Tax Fairness, Indivisible, Our Revolution, and Public Citizen.

“Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover,” the coalition says. “Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.”

Since coming into office, the Trump administration has waged war on workers’ rights. Among many other actions, his administration has stripped over a million federal workers of their right to collectively bargain in what has been called the largest act of union busting in American history and dramatically cut their wages.

He has also weakened workplace safety enforcement, eliminated rules that protected workers against wage theft, and proposed eliminating the federal minimum wage for more than 3.7 million childcare and home workers.

Despite Trump’s efforts, Americans still believe in the power of collective action. According to a Gallup poll published Thursday, 68% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, the highest level of support since the mid-1960s.

“Just like any bad boss, the way we stop the takeover is with collective action,” the coalition says on its website.

The May Day Strong coalition previously organized hundreds of thousands of workers to take to the streets for International Workers Day, more commonly known as “May Day.” On Monday, rallies are once again expected across all 50 states.

Four months later, their list of grievances has grown even longer, with Republicans having since passed a tax cut expected to facilitate perhaps the largest upward transfer of wealth in US history, featuring massive tax breaks for the wealthy paid for with historic cuts to the social safety net.

“There are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the country with a whopping $6 trillion, and that is still not enough for them,” said Saqib Bhattie, executive director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy, another group participating in the protests. “They are pushing elected officials to slash Medicaid, [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits, and special education funding for schools in order to fund their tax breaks. We need to claw back money from the billionaire. We need to push legislation to tax billionaires at the state and local levels. We need to organize to build the people power necessary to overcome their money.”

The group also plans to respond to Trump’s lawless attacks on immigrants and his militarized takeovers of American cities.

“This Labor Day,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, “we continue the fight for our democracy, the fight for the soul of our nation, the fight against the vindictive authoritarian moves Trump and the billionaire class aimed at stealing from working people and concentrating power.”

“This is about workers showing up and demanding what workers deserve all across the country,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “This Labor Day is really different, because it’s not just labor unions, as important as we may be to the workers we represent. It has to be all workers and all working families saying enough. Workers and working families deserve the bounty of the country.”

May Day Strong will host a national “mass call” online on Saturday. The locations of the hundreds of protests on Monday can be found using the map on May Day Strong’s website.