California legislators are considering giving Valero Energy Corp. hundreds of millions of dollars to cover refinery maintenance costs in a bid to prevent the closure of a San Francisco-area fuel plant.
Under such a deal, the state would pay Valero to continue operating its Benicia refinery, according to people familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The plant is slated to close by April, the latest in a string of recent California fuel-plant shutdowns.
Between $80 million and $200 million of state funds would likely be earmarked for routine maintenance work, although the terms of the arrangement could be subject to change, the people said. Maintenance is one of the biggest operating costs for refiners and the expense of major overhauls typically performed every four or five years can be a catalyst for closure. Discussions with lawmakers over keeping the Valero facility open were held as recently as this past weekend. Absent a deadline extension, legislators have until late Tuesday to submit bills for consideration.
Valero shares briefly dropped on news of the talks but have since recovered and were up 2.8% to $161.77 at 1:10 p.m. in New York, making it the day’s best-performing oil stock in the S&P 500.
Valero didn’t respond to requests for comment. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office declined to comment while representatives for state senate and assembly leaders didn’t respond to inquiries.
Newsom has in recent months taken a new tack with refiners and encouraged regulators to work with the industry to maintain fuel supplies in a state that often has the nation’s highest gasoline prices. The California Energy Commission has since walked back plans to impose a profit cap on refiners, a key factor in spurring recent plant closures.
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 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.
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.
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.
OPINION – By December, 73 out of 120 state legislators will have left the building in just two years.
As term limit reform kicks in, some critics have grumbled that this turnover is damaging, because we’re losing established leaders and decades of accumulated experience.
What’s being overlooked is the leadership and experience we’re gaining.
As an organization devoted to recruiting accomplished women to run, we worked for years with 20 of the new women members elected since 2016. As women, they are doing far more than closing the gender gap– each brings fresh, intersectional perspectives that are transforming policy and power in real time.
And the experience they bring to the legislative table is vital.
In 2022 California gained the labor and economics expertise of Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (Co-Founder of the lauded Los Angeles Black Worker Center), and the elections and democracy expertise of Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin (Santa Cruz County Registrar of Voters for 27 years).
We gained Senator Caroline Menjivar, a first-generation immigrant and LGBTQi+ Marine Corps veteran, whose advanced degree in mental health and experience as a social worker are clearly informing her first years of policymaking.
We gained Senator Aisha Wahab, the rare legislator who rents her home – rare, even though 17 million Californians also rent. She’s now a member of the upstart Renter’s Caucus, and as of February, chairs the powerful Senate Public Safety Committee as a former foster child and California’s first Muslim and Afghan-American Senator.
As term limit reform kicks in, some critics have grumbled that this turnover is damaging, because we’re losing established leaders and decades of accumulated experience. What’s being overlooked is the leadership and experience we’re gaining.
As for leadership? Before we encouraged any of the 20 Close the Gap women members serving today to run for a legislative seat, each had already racked up years leading on the front lines at the local level – mayors, city council members, school board members and more in nonprofit and business roles.
It’s clear: open seats are opening doors for new voices. Not just any voices – but precisely the ones that have been missing in the Capitol for far too long.
We expect the doors will open so wide this year that nine months from now, California will set a new record of at least 55 women in the Legislature.
Less than a decade ago, only 26 women members served in the Legislature.
Progress this dramatic doesn’t happen by accident. For women to win in high numbers, women have to run in high numbers.
It’s no coincidence that Close the Gap was founded 10 years ago, just after voters enacted term limit reform. We knew this decade would deliver a windfall of open seats, and we’ve been propelling talented women towards them ever since.
It’s working: the March 2024 primary ballot features a record breaking 135 women running for the Legislature. More than half (74) are running in open seats. Of 35 open seats, all but three feature at least one woman running. This is a sea change from what we saw just a decade ago, when all-male candidate fields were common.
And it’s one of the most diverse groups we’ve seen, with more than 50 women of color running for open seats (including eight AAPI and MENA women, 17 Black women, and more than two dozen Latinas) in every part of the state.
We coached 25 of the women leading up to their 2024 campaigns. The new wave looksand lives a whole lot more like the majority of Californians than any state government we’ve ever had.
For far too long, California left more than half the talent on the sidelines. In 2024, talent is storming the gates.
If we expect our leaders to reflect us as Californians, the current moment offers our best shot in a generation. Once an open seat is filled, most are off the table for the next 12 years due to the power of incumbency.
The time to make progress is now.
In 2022, open seats opened doors. In 2024, all signs are that those doors are going to swing open even wider. And a cohort of outstanding women are ready to walk right in and get to work.
We’re already recruiting for 2026. If you know a standout woman who should run, we’d love to hear from you.
Susannah Delano is the Executive Director of Close the Gap California, a statewide campaign to recruit and prepare progressive women candidates and close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028.
Successful groups know that recruiting great talent is essential.
College teams invest in scouting to find the kid who could be tomorrow’s star center. Major corporations recruit year-round to hit growth targets. Organizations recruit to ensure their teams reflectthe communities they serve.
In politics, though, recruitment is often left to chance, or to the good old boys network.
The 2022 U.S. Senate races reveal how decisive candidate recruitment is. Underwhelming contenders recruited by former President Trump failed in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, and the GOP lost its chance to control the Senate.
While California has the fourth largest economy on the planet, its Legislature ranked 23rd nationally in women’s representation before the 2022 election.
That’s why Close the Gap called on progressive organizations years ago to join us in prioritizing a shake-up. Investing in diverse women early was the only way we could convert the opportunity we saw on the horizon — 90+ seats opening 2022-2028 due to term limits.
With allies across the state, we identified women who would make excellent legislators, and invited those who rose to the top to run. By the time our Legislature’s “Great Resignation” increased the number of open seats five-fold this year, higher numbers of more diverse women than we’ve ever seen were ready in targeted districts.
We had to disrupt the paradigm of candidates handpicked by insiders to elect a more representative legislature.
I’m happy to report that it worked: This week, the most diverse Legislature in California history will be sworn into office.
In a dramatic 92% increase since 2017, 50 women (the majority women of color) now serve, an historic high-water mark of 42%. For the first time, a majority of our legislators are women, people of color or LGBTQ+ – just like California is proud to be.
Here are five Bay Area examples of the new talent transforming the legislature.
Lori Wilson (AD 11) served as Suisun City mayor before winning a special election to succeed Assemblymember Jim Frazier. She is the new chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and the first Black Assemblymember to represent Solano County.
Gail Pellerin (AD 28) was chief elections officer in Santa Cruz County for nearly three decades. As county clerk, she says she “managed the office of love and voting.” She is the first woman from Santa Cruz to serve in the Assembly.
Aisha Wahab (SD 10) is the daughter of Afghan refugees who served as chair of the Alameda County Human Relations Commission and as Hayward City Councilmember. She is the first Afghan-American legislator, and will join the Renter’s Caucus.
Liz Ortega (AD 20) was the first Latina to lead the Alameda County Labor Council. She is the daughter of immigrants who were previously undocumented.
Dawn Addis (AD 30) has served as a classroom teacher, co-founder of her local Women’s March, and Morro Bay Councilmember. She flipped a formerly Republican-held seat blue in a new district stretching up to Capitola.
When women run, they win just as often as men. What’s been missing is enough female candidates competing, and the infrastructure to prepare and sustain them against hand-picked good old boys. If all it took was a cultural moment or many open seats, women would have hit parity decades ago.
A strong, diverse, effective team doesn’t just happen – you need to recruit for it.
With 50 more seats opening in the next six years, there’s a robust effort already underway to ensure our state house can raise the nation’s bar for equitable governance this decade.
Heads up to the good old boys: there’s no pushing us off the path to parity now.
Susannah Delano is executive director of Close the Gap California, an organization focused on recruiting and preparing progressive women to run for the Legislature.
Susannah Delano is executive director of 
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