Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson

Benicia Mayor responds: Staying the course on public health, safety, welfare

Repost from The Benicia Herald
[Editor:  Benicia’s Mayor Elizabeth Patterson responds that she will stand firm “with zeal, diligence and fidelity to the public interest.”  It would take a book-length treatise to document the near countless ways in which Mayor Patterson has helped move Benicia to embrace a sustainable identity and future.  It would take another book to document the constant drumbeat of opposition she has endured since her campaign for re-election in 2011.  Someone should write those books!  – RS]

Elizabeth Patterson: Staying the course on public health, safety, welfare

November 28, 2014 by Elizabeth Patterson
Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson
Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson

I WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND TO A COUPLE OF recent letters commenting about our city attorney that were published in The Benicia Herald. I personally prefer people to focus on issues and not staff. It should not be about staff, since they work for the City Council.

What was noted in one letter in defense of the city attorney was, in my experience, the extraordinary, passionate and lengthy defense of the city attorney by Vice Mayor Tom Campbell. Keep in mind the issue at hand is my so-called “biased” conflict of interest based on the E-Alerts I send. It is a difficult position for staff when one Council member questions another. Where do you draw the line? What is in the best interest of the city?

Most of my E-Alerts are about community goings-on, events, meeting notices and issues of public interest and concern. I send these e-Alerts when my workload and time allow. The following is what I always have printed at the foot of my E-Alert:

“This site is my responsibility and my discretion including recipients and material. Requests for posting are honored and I encourage readers to share information. An informed society is essential. Material on this site is my personal domain and does not reflect official city policy. Posting material on this site does not indicate bias for future decision making. Use of words and terminology, notice about events, forums and public concerns is not dicta nor determinative for future decisions. The more sunshine on issues, events, happenings and concerns, the better the public is aware of choices so that government is open and accessible to all and not just the few. Public discourse is the path to fair and informed decisions.”

As my attorney has written, “(W)e understand that you have acted in accordance with this statement, and we have not reviewed any email alerts or other communications which suggest otherwise.”

What differs from my attorney’s information and the city attorney’s outside counsel, Mike Jenkins, is that only select emails were sent to Jenkins while my attorney received multiple batches of complete past E-Alerts as well as all current ones. As my attorney wrote, “(Y)ou have requested our guidance on the laws which apply to you as a public official in California with respect to this matter and similar matters which may come before the city in the future. Our firm has many years of experience and expertise with respect to conflict-of-interest issues for public officials in California.

“As mayor, you have taken a leadership role on providing information to the city residents, and speaking out on the health and safety issues raised by the proposal to increase the (Valero crude-by-rail) train deliveries.

“In summary, based on our review of the facts, it is our opinion that you do not have a disqualifying conflict of interest in the Valero matter based on the Political Reform Act (Gov. Code section 81000, et seq.) which is the primary set of statutes governing public official conflicts of interest and which covers financial conflicts of interest. In addition, since the matter does not involve a contract with the city, Government Code section 1090 does not apply.”

My attorney’s opinion discussed the court decisions holding that public officers must exercise their powers with “disinterested skill, zeal, and diligence and primarily for the benefit of the public,” and that “fidelity to the public interest is the primary purpose of conflict of interest laws.” Indeed, public officers are obliged to fulfill their responsibilities with both honesty and loyalty. If they are influenced by any “base and improper considerations” of personal advantage, they violate their oaths of office.

Jenkins’s opinion cited numerous appellate cases about elected officials having personal reasons for acting toward a city employee and other personnel and contract matters of an elected official. These cases are not on point in my case. My E-Alerts are informing the public about issues affecting public health, safety and welfare.

Jenkins cites another case involving a court holding that a planning commissioner was “biased.” This case is distinguished from the Fairfield case because a) it involves an appointed official, not an elected one; and b) the commissioner actually wrote an argument against a project before it came before the elected body.

The California Supreme Court wrote in the Fairfield decision that “(t)hese topics are matters of concern to the civic-minded people of the community, who will naturally exchange views and opinions. . . . A councilman (sic) has not only a right but an obligation to discuss issues of vital concern with his constituents and to state his views of public importance.” The Fairfield decision has not been overturned or revised by the court and remains the law applicable in similar circumstances.

Because my interest is to provide the public information about vital public health, safety and welfare issues, I send, without expressing an opinion on a specific project, information about relevant meetings, including public and quasi-public (Valero) issues and news regarding national, regional and local issues.

Therefore, I will rely on the advice of my attorney, to wit: “Your current course as spelled out in the statement included on your email alerts . . . is certainly consistent with both (court) decisions and prudent under all of the circumstances. Accordingly, we would advise you to stay your current course of engaging in the exchange of information and discussion of the issues and supporting the process for public education and engagement on the issues while avoiding any specific statements of opposition to the pending permit decision and keeping an even-handed approach to your interactions with the public and all others involved in the matter.”

With zeal, diligence and fidelity to the public interest, Elizabeth Patterson

Elizabeth Patterson is the mayor of Benicia.

Keystone XL, Strip mining, Tar sands crude

The Destructive Legacy of Tar Sands Oil

Repost from Co.Exist
[Editor: Great photos, best viewed on Co.Exist.  Also of interest on Co.Exist: This Is What Your City Would Look Like If All The World’s Ice Sheets Melt– RS]

As The Keystone Pipeline Inches Closer, Look At The Destructive Legacy Of Tar Sands Oil

A bird’s-eye view of the post-apocalyptic landscape that we’ve already created.
By Adele Peters, November 24, 2014 
Pine Bend Refinery, Rosemont, MN
Strips mines cover an area of forest seven times larger than Manhattan. Uncovered rail cars Loading Petroleum Coke, a byproduct of tar sands refining, Pine Bend Refinery, Rosemont, MN

By a single vote, the U.S. Senate failed to fast-track the approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline last week, which would carry Canadian tar sands oil straight across the nation to the Gulf of Mexico. Lawmakers are expected to approve it in January, however, and President Obama may or may not let it squeak through.

A new photo series traces the path of the proposed pipeline, from the tar sands in Alberta to massive refineries in Texas. The photos make something clear: With or without the pipeline, huge amounts of tar sands oil are already being extracted and flowing into the U.S. Over the last four years, the amount of Canadian crude sent to Texas has increased by 83%.

Photographer Alex MacLean first flew over Alberta last winter, taking shots of a post-apocalyptic landscape that are hard to capture from the ground.

Meandering Channel of Wastewater, Suncor Mine, Alberta, Canada

Strip mines cover an area of forest seven times larger than Manhattan. Since most of the tar sands are buried deep underground, and the molasses-like bitumen is too thick to extract on its own, the oil companies have also built enormous boilers to liquefy the sludge.

“Looking at the pictures of the huge furnaces they have to use in the wells, you can see how much energy this takes to extract,” says MacLean. “If you’re driving around with this fuel, it’s 17% to 20% more carbon intense than regular gas.”

MacLean returned to the oil fields again last summer with journalist Daniel Grossman, and then traveled on to refineries in the Midwest and the Gulf Coast that are already processing tar sands oil.

The Alberta Clipper line ships 450,000 barrels of oil to Wisconsin every day. One branch splits off to Detroit, where a refinery caused a three-day long oil spill in a river in 2010.

Steam and smoke rise from upgrading facility at Syncrude Mildred Lake Mine, Alberta, Canada

“That was a billion-dollar cleanup,” says MacLean. “It was totally overshadowed—they call it the oil spill no one ever heard of, because it happened almost simultaneously with the BP spill in the Gulf.”

Enbridge, the company responsible for that spill, managed to avoid a lengthy approval process to increase its capacity; by next year, it expects to ship 800,000 barrels of oil per day. Unlike the well-publicized Keystone project, it didn’t need a new permit, but instead connected two parallel pipelines running along the border. MacLean’s photos show new lines under construction.

In the Gulf, the photos show the refineries that Keystone may eventually connect to Alberta.

“The size of the capital investment is just staggering—hundreds of billions of dollars of refining infrastructure along the coast,” MacLean says. “It’s just incredible amounts of money. You realize that the pipeline, which is around $4 billion, is just small change in the scheme of things. They can spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying to get the pipeline through.”

MacLean hopes the photos help us better understand the impact of a possible approval.

“I think if we’re really going to seriously mitigate climate change, we really need to start now and not put in infrastructure that’s going to last 30 years,” he says. “We’d be saddled with these type of investments, when we’d be better off putting both our know-how and our money towards more sustainable resources.”

[By Adele Peters.   Adele Peters is a writer who focuses on sustainability and design and lives in Oakland, California. She’s worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.  All photos: Alex MacLean]
Bakken Crude, California Office of Emergency Services (OES), Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Environmental Impacts, Feather River Canyon, Stockton CA, Union Pacific Railroad

State ‘Dodged a Bullet’ in Feather River Derailment, OES Says

Repost from Fox40 TV Sacramento
[Editor: As my friend said, “THIS is the problem….”  – RS]

State ‘Dodged a Bullet’ in Feather River Derailment, OES Says

November 26, 2014, by Lonnie Wong

Union Pacific work crews continue to clear a 12-car derailment that dumped a shipment of corn into the Feather River.

The Union Pacific rail line along the Feather River is a major route for bulk goods into and out of California.  While the track has been cleared, train traffic is being held back periodically while the delicate clean-up process moves forward.That includes vacuuming corn from the cars before their removal, and installing barriers to keep more grain from getting into the feather river.

At the same time, investigators want to know why the cars left the track.

That’s because corn isn’t the only freight that is hauled through the scenic canyon.

“In this particular case, we dodged a bullet,” California Office of Emergency Services Communications Director Kelly Huston said.

OES says two oil trains carry volatile Bakken crude oil through the Feather River canyon each week  a million gallons at a time.

It’s the same crude oil that has exploded into flames and polluted rivers in several train derailments over the past year and a half.

“As the train travels through the Feather River it eventually ends up in downtown Sacramento and into Stockton and into the bay area and it’s traveling through a lot of high population centers,” Huston said. “As it gets into high population areas it could also pose a threat if there’s a fire and explosion.”

Union Pacific also wants to find out what happened to prevent another derailment.

It says it’s spent $30 billion in the last decade on new technologies to reduce derailments by 23 percent. It also says it adheres to strict federal safety standards.

“We operate all our trains under federal regulations we are required to do so, and that includes for all commodities that we move on the system,” Liisa Stark, with Union Pacific Public Affairs office, told FOX40.

But critics say federal regulations have not caught up with the emerging danger of Bakken crude derailments.

Katie Payne was heading to a family gathering in Porterville where she grew up and stopped with her husband and two sons to look at the wreckage.  Her brother works for the railroad in the area.

“It does concern me. They do have issues with rock slides and train problems so if it’s dangerous chemicals or crude oil that could really destroy this wild and scenic Feather River,” Payne said.

Not to mention that it is a major water supply and hydro-electric source for valley residents.

The fact is rail accidents happen despite anyone’s best intentions, which is a worry as the number of Bakken crude shipments increase.

”We’re not taking the right precautions, we’re not keeping the public safe,” Payne said.

AMTRAK, Crude By Rail, East Bay, San Francisco Bay Area, San Luis Obispo County, Santa Maria Refinery, Union Pacific Railroad

San Jose council member urges rejection of Central California refinery’s crude-by-rail project

Repost from The San Jose Mercury News

San Jose council member urges rejection of Central California refinery’s crude-by-rail project

By Tom Lochner, Oakland Tribune, 11/26/2014

BERKELEY — As the deadline arrived for comments to an environmental report on a Central California crude-by-rail project, a San Jose City councilman got the early jump, announcing his opposition in a news release Monday afternoon.

The Phillips 66 Company Rail Spur Extension Project would bring as many as 250 unit trains a year with 80 tank cars plus locomotives and supporting cars to a new crude oil unloading facility in Santa Maria from the north or from the south along tracks owned by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Likely itineraries for the crude oil supplies coming from out-of-state include the Union Pacific Railroad tracks along the eastern shore of San Pablo and San Francisco bays that also carry Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor and Coast Starlight trains.

“This will allow mile-long oil trains carrying millions of gallons of explosive, toxic crude oil in unsafe tank cars to travel through California every day,” reads a news release from San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra. “These trains will travel through the Bay Area passing neighborhoods in San Jose, including Kalra’s District 2 in south San Jose. This proposed plan threatens the residents and families along the rail routes and also threatens the environment and local water supplies.”

Kalra continues by urging San Luis Obispo County to reject the project, saying, “The safety of our community members, our health, and our environment, should not be taken lightly.”

In March, the Berkeley and Richmond city councils voted unanimously to oppose the transport of crude oil by rail through the East Bay.

As of early Tuesday, Berkeley had not communicated to this newspaper its comments to the environmental report. San Luis Obispo County as of early Tuesday had not published what is expected to be a voluminous body of comments from public agencies, advocacy groups and individuals.

On Tuesday, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said, “Having 60-car trains going through our town, as many as two a day, is an area of concern for anyone in the Bay Area because of the vulnerability of the rail cars and the problems that would ensue if one of them would explode.”

The Phillips 66 Santa Maria refinery currently receives its crude oil supply via underground pipeline from locations throughout California, but with the decline in crude oil production in the state, it is looking to alternative supplies that would be delivered most practically by rail, according to the refinery website.

“The refinery currently uses trains to transport products, and refinery personnel have decades of experience in safely handling railcars,” the Santa Maria Refinery Rail Project page reads in part. “The proposed change will help the refinery, and the approximately 200 permanent jobs it provides, remain viable under increasingly challenging business conditions.

“Everything at Phillips 66 is done with safety as the highest priority.”

For safe and healthy communities…