Valero’s Benicia Refinery, located near homes, schools, and parks, has placed – and will continue to place – residents at risk during dangerous incidents or regulatory violations. Despite years of accidental spills and emissions as well as many documented violations (some egregious), Valero has maintained its historic hostility to both citizen- and City-led proposals for local oversight. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub.

By Stephen Golub, January 26, 2025

On Tuesday, February 4, we can help protect Benicia’s kids and grandkids and all the rest of us by attending the 6 pm City Council meeting, in person or via Zoom, to show support for the draft Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) that the Council will soon vote on. The measure can reduce the risks of toxic emissions, fires and explosions at the Valero Refinery and other covered businesses. You can supplement your attendance by emailing your support to Mayor Steve Young, Vice Mayor Trevor Macenski and Council Members Kari Birdseye, Lionel Largaespada and Terry Scott, at

SYoung@ci.benicia.ca.us (Mayor Young)
TMacenski@ci.benicia.ca.us (Vice Mayor Macenski)
KBirdseye@ci.benicia.ca.us (Council Member Kari Birdseye)
LLargaespada@ci.benicia.ca.us (Council Member Lionel Largaespda)
TScott@ci.benicia.ca.us (Council Member Terry Scott)

Why is this so vital? Well…

Imagine you had a neighbor who had a backyard business that they repeatedly said was safe. But lo and behold, you found out that for many years the business had emitted toxic fumes dangerous to the health of your kids and grandkids and yourself.

What’s more, this was by no means the only such hazardous action by them. And some such actions also pose the risk of fire and explosions.

After all this, the neighbor sends a letter that could be seen as a threat to sue you if you seek firmer guarantees than a supposed safety-enhancing understanding you two had, which in fact had failed to ensure safety from their fumes. And folks affiliated with them reject initial attempts to discuss such guarantees. (But the neighbor does buy your kids little league uniforms as a gesture of goodwill.)

Would you feel safe? Would you want more assurance to protect the kids from toxic fumes, fires and explosions?

That’s pretty much the choice Benicia faces. On February 4, the City Council will start to consider the ISO. The measure requires that the Valero Refinery and other potentially dangerous businesses provide us with more information about their operations and accidents, information that could protect our kids and all of us from dangerous emissions and potential fires and explosions.

This should be a no-brainer. Drafted with great dedication and diligence by Council Members Birdseye and Scott as well as Fire Chief Chadwick and other personnel, the ISO gives Benicia a seat at the table in knowing what’s going on.

This in turn helps prevent dangerous events. If we’d had such a seat for the past 20 years, we might have avoided 15-plus years of Valero spewing toxic emissions hundreds of times the legal limits into our air, as well as some of the numerous other violations it committed.

The need for the ISO has increased greatly recently. With a new administration in DC backed by fossil fuel industry interests, the federal Environmental Protection Agency will almost certainly reduce its crucial role in protecting our health and safety.

Right now, all we have with Valero is a Memorandum of Understanding that the corporation can walk away from pretty easily.

The ISO would instead be binding on and paid for by Valero and other covered businesses.

All other refinery-hosting communities in the Bay Area have such ISOs; we’re merely seeking the same sort of prevention and protection for our health and safety.

As I’ve said before, I greatly respect our valued neighbors and friends who work or worked hard at the refinery. But Valero’s Texas headquarters calls the shots. We’re the ones who suffer if something goes wrong, not those San Antonio-based executives.

The threat of emissions, fires and explosions may seem far away. Many LA residents had similar thoughts before firestorms raced through their communities. Unlike them, we can take a specific step – the ISO – to reduce risks.

By showing up at the February 4 meeting and emailing our City Council members, we can help preserve this wonderful town that we love.

Speaking of the Council, it’s time for these dedicated public servants to stand up together for Benicians’ health and safety.

It’s time for our City leaders to lead.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stephen Golub, Trump

We’re Not Alone: MLK’s Dream, Not the Trump Nightmare, Should Define January 20

January 20, 2025 Roger Straw

Dr. King Saw the Civil Rights Movement as Part of a Global Struggle. That Means Even More Today

By Stephen Golub, Benicia resident and author, A Promised Land – America as a Developing Country

**Click for info on Benicia celebration of MLK Day, Monday 1/20/25, 7pm**

So, Inauguration Day is here. Our president is a racist, rapist, insurrectionist and narcissist, as well as a corrupt, convicted crook – to put it mildly. But to get through today’s dismay, and to take heart for the next four years, it’s far better to make January 20 about the other event it commemorates: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This includes learning from Dr. King’s under-appreciated dream about how the fight for freedom in America relates to similar struggles abroad, in stark contrast with Trump’s nightmarish outlook.

Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue

Trump famously proclaims his stand-alone America First worldview, including disdain for democratic allies and praise for autocrats such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Like Trump, Orban won and then lost his post and then regained it. Having hobbled a once-vibrant democracy by partly crippling his country’s courts, free press and opposition, his rule represents a potential model for Trump’s second term.

Then there’s Trump’s imperialistic impulse to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal and even Canada. Whether or not he’s wholly serious, he’s certainly undercutting the case America could make against both Russia’s calamitous attacks on Ukraine and China’s potential plans to seize Taiwan. He strengthens those repressive, aggressive regimes’ international hands in the process.

Immigration similarly reflects his outlook. There are legitimate debates to be had about how to handle this issue. But Trump trashes any notion of nuance and compassion as he seeks to turn our land of immigrants into a place that resents new arrivals, ridiculously accuses them of stealing and eating Americans’ pets, and vows to end constitutionally guaranteed birthright citizenship.

He Had a Dream

Compare what Trump’s inauguration augurs with Dr. King’s role in the world and how he saw America fitting in. One lesser-known aspect of his work was its international dimension. In a 1957 sermon, after returning home from ceremonies celebrating Ghana’s independence from British colonial rule, he placed the U.S. civil rights movement within the larger context of human rights and anti-colonial campaigns across the globe. As he emphasized, “[F]reedom never comes on a silver platter. It’s never easy.”

Traveling to India in 1959, he wrote that “India’s [Mahatma] Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” He further linked “the Christian doctrine of love” to the Hindu leader’s words and actions.

Dr. King supported and inspired other human rights struggles abroad. He helped mobilize international opposition to the South African government’s 1957 prosecution of Nelson Mandela and 155 other anti-apartheid activists for alleged treason. Mandela in turn echoed King’s resounding “Free at last!” cry on several occasions, including when proclaiming his party’s 1994 election triumph that capped the end of apartheid.

We’re Not Alone

With Trump’s nightmare ascendant and Dr. King’s dreams currently eclipsed, these are dark days. They will grow darker in the months to come. Here and around the world, it may seem that an autocratic tide could become a tsunami.

But Dr. King’s global role reminds us that we are not alone in our communities or country. The struggle for freedom and justice stretches beyond our shores. Such fights ebb and flow. Even today’s body blows can give way to triumphs tomorrow.

Other nations can thus inspire us to persevere despite the storms ahead. In recent years we’ve seen once-resilient autocrats defeated in Bangladesh, Brazil, Poland, South Korea and Syria. And even in Hungary, the authoritarian Orban’s party suffered setbacks in 2024’s European Parliament elections.

The tide can turn. Not necessarily. Certainly not immediately, as we lick our wounds and watch what outrages, weaknesses, self-inflicted injuries, surprises and successes emerge from Trumpworld (including, we can hope, some steps that might even do some good). But with patience and determination, we may well develop effective strategies to help our democracy survive and thrive – not least if we learn from other countries, as Martin Luther King Jr. did.

Or as Dr. King might have put it: We shall overcome.

Benicia resident and author Stephen Golub, A Promised Land

We’re Not Alone: MLK’s Dream, Not the Trump Nightmare, by Stephen Golub.

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Benicia CA, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Benicia Martin Luther King Day – Monday, January 20, 2025

January 16, 2025 Roger Straw

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):

Benicia, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Benicia Observance of Martin Luther King Day – Monday, January 20, 2025