Category Archives: Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community

Benicia City Council, Benicia Planning Commission, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, Crude By Rail, Local Regulation, Oil trains, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

FORESTETHICS: Benicia Planning Commission unanimously DENIES Valero oil trains project

From an email by Ethan Buckner, ForestEthics

ForestEthics2From: Ethan Buckner
Sent: Friday, February 12, 2016 2:11 AM
Subject: BREAKING: Benicia Planning Commission unanimously DENIES Valero oil trains project

Extraordinary news tonight from Benicia, CA, where the town’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny a land use permit for a proposed oil trains project at the Valero Benicia Refinery.

The decision comes despite immense pressure from Valero, the City Staff & City Attorney who all recommended approval of the project on the basis that federal law preempted the city from even considering rail impacts in making their land use decision.

Tonight’s decision comes at the tail end of four straight nights of public hearings that have lasted past 11pm. Public comment during the hearings reflected the broad-based opposition to the oil trains project fostered by tireless grassroots organizing.

One highlight from tonight’s hearing was a statement from Donald Dean, the Planning Commission’s chair, to the City Attorney & contracted attorney (who happened to have a long history of defending high-profile oil & energy projects). He said, “I understand the preemption issue, on a theoretical legal level, but I can’t understand this on a human level.”

The decision will likely be appealed to the Benicia City Council, who could vote on the project as early as mid-March. Stay tuned for updates, because we have a big fight ahead of us.

Yard signThe lion’s share of credit here goes out to the incredible grassroots leadership of Benicians for a Safe & Healthy Community. These tireless, fierce, and deeply passionate leaders have been fighting Valero tooth and nail for over three years, and have done a tremendous job in a tough industry town to build a campaign to be reckoned with.

Hopefully this momentum carries us forward for a denial at the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission later this month.

Onward together!
Ethan

—
Ethan Buckner
Extreme Oil Campaigner
ForestEthics

Benicia Planning Commission, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, Crude By Rail, Take Action, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Crude By Rail

SIGN THE PETITION: No Valero Oil Trains in Benicia!

Over 1300 of you have already signed the Safe Benicia petition.  If you have not yet signed, please do so now.  Fill in your info below. Then add a comment or just click on ADD YOUR NAME at the bottom.

Benicia Planning Commission, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, Crude By Rail, Environmental review, Valero Crude By Rail

Only two weeks (no, one week!) left to voice your opposition to Valero Crude By Rail

October 16, 2016

Send a letter of opposition today!

Below are just a few of the reasons you can cite in your letter to the City.  These points came from a handout by Benicians For a Safe and Healthy Community.  Here are two other letter guides: Center for Biological Diversity and ForestEthics.  Send your email to : amillion@ci.benicia.ca.us or send to  Amy Million, Principal Planner, City of Benicia, 250 East L Street, Benicia, CA 94510.

• Tank car design is inadequate, with extremely poor safety records – BOTH DOT-111 AND the “safer” CPC-1232 cars are not safe and have derailed and exploded in other communities.  The  federal government can’t agree on a safe car and its years away from being implemented.
• New Federal Department of Transportation Rules (May, 2015) are inadequate and do not move quickly enough.
• Derailed oil trains that explode cannot be extinguished and so are left to burn themselves out which takes several days.  Emergency response plans are non-existent for a catastrophic derailment and explosion.
• The RDEIR proposes three dangerous routes: a) through the Sierras, the Feather River route – note the recent corn car derailment with resulting spill in the Feather River, b) the Dunsmuir route with the historic spill into the River and c) the Truckee / Donner Lake route with its treacherous mountain grades and beautiful resort areas.  All 3 routes go through areas described by the state as high hazard areas for derailments.  What are the risks of fires in our mountains and spills into all of the waterways the trains pass over?
• We question the statistics on the possible rates of derailments and train explosions.
• High hazard flammable trains will be going through highly populated areas like Davis and Sacramento when the National Transportation Safety Board says they should be rerouted whenever possible away from populated areas.
• Union Pacific can run trains any time they want to and even send in two train shipments in one day.  Neither the City of Benicia nor Valero have control over routes, cars, and shipment times.  Note statements about “federal pre-emption” in the appendices.
• What are the economic risks if there was a derailment and explosion and the refinery was to catch on fire?  Valero’s tank farm is in the blast zone.
• The Draft Revised EIR says there are significant hazards to the public through a reasonably foreseeable accident.  Why would we tolerate this?
• What are the environmental impacts when such extreme methods to get the oil, such as fracking and basically strip mining for tar sands are used to get the oil that is coming by rail?

• There’s lots more – add your own concerns – speak from the heart and with conviction!

Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community
SafeBenicia.org
Facebook.com/StopCrudeByRail
(707) 742-3597
DONATE OR SIGN THE PETITION HERE!

Opposed to Crude by Rail and/or critical of the EIR

• Over 1300 who signed the petition (mostly Benicians)
• Benicians For a Safe and Healthy Community (SafeBenicia.org and on Facebook at StopCrudeByRail)
• Hundreds of Benicians and others who wrote letters calling into question the claims of the Environmental Impact Report
• California’s Attorney General
• The Sacramento Area Council of Governments
• The City of Davis, California
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Sierra Club
• ForestEthics
• Center for Biological Diversity
• EarthJustice
• Sunflower Alliance
• Communities for a Better Environment
• Bay Area Refinery Corridor Coalition (BARCC)
• Crocket Rodeo United to Defend the Environment (C.R.U.D.E.)
• Idle No More – Bay Area
• Martinez Environmental Group
• 350 Bay Area
• Global Community Monitor
• … and many more

More information:

• Take Action (including more info on letter-writing)
• Project Documents (Valero’s proposal)
• Project Review (letters on the EIR submitted by agencies and individuals)
• Local Media Coverage (letters to the news media)

 

 

 

 

 

We have moved into the final phase of the City of Benicia’s comment period.  Your voice is important as the Planning Commission

Benicia Planning Commission, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, Crude By Rail, Environmental Impacts, Environmental review, Public Health, Public Safety, Revised Draft EIR (RDEIR), Valero Crude By Rail

CALL TO ACTION: Public Comment on Revised DEIR for Valero Crude By Rail

Repost from Stop Crude By Rail Facebook Event (by Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, SafeBenicia.org)

HearingCALLTOACTION2015-09-29
Click on the image to go to the Facebook event page. Let them know if you plan to attend.

CALL TO ACTION: Public Comment on
Revised DEIR for Valero Crude By Rail
~ Planning Commission Hearing ~
Tuesday, September 29, at 5:30pm
Benicia City Council Chambers

The City of Benicia Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) for a proposed crude-by-rail project. The proposed project would allow the Benicia Valero Refinery to receive up to 70,000 barrels per day of its crude by rail. The project involves installation of a new railcar unloading rack, rail track spurs, pumps, pipeline and other infrastructure at the refinery.

The environmental analysis conducted to date indicates that there would be significant and unavoidable impacts on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous materials and biological resources.

Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community and many other governmental agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals have also determined that there are huge safety risks, not only for Benicia, but for all communities and the environment along the entire uprail line from the extraction point to it’s destination in Benicia.

Please join us to voice your concerns about the added environmental impacts and safety risks that this project will add, by attending the first hearing on the RDEIR.

If you have any questions on this hearing, please contact our spokesperson Andrés Soto by calling him at (707) 742-3597 or emailing us at info@safebenicia.org.