Category Archives: Crude By Rail

DAVIS & SACRAMENTO: How to participate in Benicia oil train hearings April 4th

From an email by Lynne Nittler, Davis CA, March 26, 2016

Still time to participate in Valero-Benicia Oil Train Decision

YolanoClimateActionCentralAfter three years of study, the Benicia Planning Commission voted not to certify the final EIR and denied the Valero Crude-by-Rail Project on February 11.

This decision came about through the sustained efforts of Benicians for a Healthy and Safe Community with consistent support from individuals in Davis and Sacramento who wrote letters and testified during all the stages of the Environmental Impact Review process.  The involvement of many uprail agencies (7 Air Quality Management Districts, lawyers from Sierra Club, NRDC, Forest Ethics,  Stanford Law Center, the CA Attorney General, etc.) and governmental bodies (City of Davis, Yolo County, Sacramento Area Council of Governments, etc.) were instrumental in the Planning Commissioners decision-making. Many hundreds of pages of written comments were submitted.

Valero appealed the decision to the Benicia City Council.  Public testimony will be on April 4, 6 and 19.

Concerned Davis residents are encouraged to write their specific concerns to the Benicia City Council.  Hints for letter-writing ideas and where to send the letters are found at the website below.

Residents are also invited to reserve a space on the bus heading to Benicia on April 4th.  There will be a pickup at Caffe Italia parking lot at approximately 5:15pm to arrive in Benicia around 6pm.  The bus will leave Benicia at 9pm.  Riders do not need to testify.  We need a large Davis contingent present to show our concern about the prospect of oil trains coming through our downtown.

For more details, read “Update” and “Ride the bus” posted at www.yolanoclimateaction.org  For questions, contact Lynne at lnittler at sbcglobal dot net.

MARILYN BARDET: Comment at Benicia City Council on 3/22 – Valero’s request for a delay

By Marilyn Bardet, March 22, 2016

Benicia City Council on March 22, public comment – Valero’s request for a delay

Valero’s request for delay in the appeal process to acquire a declaration from STB on the scope of preemption interferes with local politics with far-reaching ramifications.

On March 15th, at the opening hearing of Valero’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s long deliberations and unanimous decisions to deny certification of the FEIR, and to deny the Crude-By-Rail Project a permit for construction, it was very clear that Valero’s attorney John Flynn surprised everybody — our City Staff, and all of you, Mayor and councilmembers, and the public — by announcing a request for an indefinite delay in the appeal process, to enable Valero to solicit an opinion from the Surface Transportation Board, an agency under the Federal Dept. of Transportation, on the scope and breadth of preemption law. What a surprise indeed, since the role of the STB is to exclusively address rail carrier companies’ concerns and controversies, not those raised by oil companies.

We can’t forget how you expressed your dismay and discomfort:
Councilmember Hughs, you’d remarked how you were “caught off guard”, showing by your words and expression the effect of Valero’s unexpected request on the whole council. Councilmember Campbell, you’d reacted with stronger language, declaring that Valero’s request felt like “a threat.”

You’d each asked Mr. Flynn why Valero had waited so long to petition the STB, especially if the STB’s opinion were considered crucial to public discussion of Valero’s project. Afterall, our City Staff, ESA consultants, or Valero’s attorneys, could have solicited the STB two years ago when the Draft EIR was being developed. Letters submitted to the City by Valero’s attorneys, Mr Flynn and Mr. Walsh, were included in the Revised DEIR’s Appendix H. Those letters made explicit their case that Preemption renders the requirements of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, largely irrelevant with regard to any significant direct or indirect impacts cited in the DEIR that would be associated to Project-related rail operations. Valero has repeatedly made this case over the last three years.

So, why do they appear to express such doubt in their own legal opinions now?

Whatever reply the STB might deliver to Valero at any future point in time would not stand to legally resolve the controversy over preemption’s authority, nor ipso facto neutralize requirements of CEQA, which call for thorough discussion of significant impacts of a project, for feasible and effective mitigations plans that would reduce or eliminate those impacts, and also, very importantly, for feasible alternatives to the Project. It’s worth remembering that the FEIR declared that the Environmentally Superior Project would be the “No Project Alternative.”

We must ask: why is soliciting STB for an opinion so necessary to “everyone” right now, as Valero’s attorney asserted?

When questioned, Mr. Flynn admitted that it could take one month for their office — presumably with green light from corporate, in San Antonio — to prepare and file their official request to the STB, and that it could take anywhere from 3 – 6 months to receive a reply, with no guarantee that one would be forthcoming even then. Presumably, Valero would be summarizing, on their own terms to STB, the views of legal experts who have testified against the broad view of preemption that Valero stands by.

In the wake of their unwelcomed request for delay, general confusion has been sown for our City Staff, this council, and our community at large and for all those communities “uprail.”However, huge political stakes have been put into play by Valero’s delay maneuver. There are many questions raised by their request, and far-reaching local and statewide political ramifications, should you approve a delay.

We know that the controversy swirling around preemption is relevant to the decisions to be made in other cities and regions in California and across the US faced with proposed crude-by-rail projects, including in San Luis Obispo County.

Most important to our City and our community:

It appears that Valero is willingly going out on a limb to interject their interests into local politics for the upcoming campaign season, and to reach beyond it.

Do you feel the set up?

Valero’s delay appears to aim to suspend or neutralize further discussion of the Project in the political arena, based on a dubious need to hear from STB, thus to focus almost exclusive attention on Preemption while avoiding discussion of local impacts under land use jurisdiction of the City of Benicia.

So let’s take stock of where we stand right now.

The City retains authority under CEQA over the land use decision governing the siting of the Project on Valero’s private property and the significant impacts that can be fairly anticipated associated to its proposed location.

Our City Attorney and Mr. Hogin are obligated to advise council on your options with regard to Valero’s request for delay. Your mandate is to preserve the independent and legitimate authority of our City on issues of land use, and thereby you must aim to preserve the welfare and wellbeing of our community.

In my view, and that of many others, you must proceed to a fair and objective determination on the most momentous and critical land use issue in decades to come before our planning commission and now this council. (Some say since WWII !)

We hope you will make a wise decision on April 4th and reject Valero’s bid for delay, with respect for public involvement and continuing public hearings on their appeal.

Thank you for your attention. — Marilyn Bardet, Benicia
 

First oil, now coal: More fears of trains coming through Davis

Repost from the Davis Enterprise

First oil, now coal: More fears of trains coming through Davis

By Felicia Alvarez, March 25, 2016

The railways are rumbling with controversy once again as state agencies examine a coal train proposal that could send an additional 9 million tons of coal destined for export across California each year.

Four to six 100-car-long coal trains could travel through Davis each day under the plan, delivering coal from mines near Salt Lake City to a new cargo terminal in Oakland. The train route runs roughly parallel to Interstate 80, through Sacramento and Davis and onward to the Bay Area.

“It would more than triple the amount of coal coming out of the West Coast,” said Ray Sotero, communications director for state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland. Hancock introduced several bills in February to block the coal’s transportation.

The exports hinge on the construction of a new port in Oakland, which is receiving state funding for infrastructure and redevelopment in the surrounding areas. Development on the site has been underway for the past three to four years, led by developer Phil Tagami of Bowie Resource Partners, a Kentucky-based coal company with coal mines in Utah, Sotero said.

The coal train controversy arrives amid ongoing debate over Valero’s proposal to expand its refinery in Benicia and increase crude oil shipments by rail through Northern California.

The proposal — which would send 50-car-long crude oil shipments through Davis and nearby cities twice a day — was rejected last month by the Benicia Planning Commission, but the City Council will hear Valero’s appeal in April.

Coal is far less likely to explode or poison watersheds — unlike tar sands or crude oil — but it still poses an environmental threat, said Lynne Nittler, a Davis environmental advocate.

“It’s a little safer … but air quality-wise it’s nasty,” she said.

About 18,300 tons of coal dust per year could be released into Northern California’s air, affecting cities from Sacramento and Davis to Emeryville and Oakland, according to an environmental health and safety report by the Sierra Club. The report takes a lower-end estimate with the assumption that three coal trains could travel along the rail route each day.

Coal dust includes lead, mercury and arsenic, as well as fine particles that can contribute to asthma and heart disease, the report states. It also can contaminate air, water and soil, and homes and other buildings adjacent to the railroad tracks.

Local air quality is already below state safety standards, said Tom Hall, a spokesman for the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District. The region is currently at the “severe non-attainment” level for ground-level smog, he said.

Right now, railroad transport accounts for about 7 percent of nitrogen oxide — a key component of smog — in the area.

“Any extra nitrogen oxide is kind of a problem,” Hall said.

The notion of increasing coal shipments runs contrary to national trends on this greenhouse-gas-producing fuel. President Barack Obama took a stand against coal earlier this year, halting new coal mining leases, effectively putting a stop to new coal production on federal lands.

“We’ve become such short-term thinkers. … That thinking is deadly to us at this point,” Nittler said.

Meanwhile, the political battle rages on.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a deal last week for a $53 million loan to support construction of the new terminal in Oakland. Proponents of the port project say it will bring new jobs and a consistent market for Utah’s struggling coal industry, the Los Angeles Times reports.

California legislators are igniting their own push against the coal trains through the four bills introduced by Hancock.

Two of the bills are directly geared at the Oakland port. SB 1277 would prohibit shipping coal through the port, which is publicly funded in part. SB 1278 would require an environmental impact review for agencies that have authority to vote on any part of the project.

SB 1279 and SB 1280 would prohibit the use of public funds to build or operate any port that exports coal, and require port facilities that ship bulk commodities and receive state funds to prohibit coal shipments or fully mitigate the greenhouse-gas emissions with coal combustion.

A hearing on the bills is scheduled for April 5 at the state Capitol.

CREDO ACTION: Urge the BenIcia City Council to reject Valero’s dangerous oil train plan

From an email by CREDO Action, by Elijah Zarlin

Urge the BenIcia City Council to reject Valero’s dangerous oil train plan.

Dear … ,

CREDO_Action_NoMoreToxicExplodingPollutingOilTrainsValero Energy Corporation is trying to build an oil train terminal at its refinery in Benicia, which, if approved, would bring massive trains loaded with 2.5 million gallons of toxic, explosive crude through highly populated areas from the Nevada border, through Sacramento and into the Bay Area. (source 1: see note below)

Last month, the Benicia Planning Commission rejected the plan as a danger to the health, safety and welfare of Benicia and uprail communities.

But Valero appealed the decision. On April 4th, the Benicia City Council will make its final decision on the proposal. We need to show up in force to speak out against the danger of oil trains in our communities. Can you be there?

Stop Valero’s Oil Trains: Rally and City Council Hearing
Monday, April 4, 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Benicia City Hall, 250 East L Street, Benicia, CA 94510
RSVP to speak out against oil trains.

Busses are being organized from Sacramento. Click here for more information.

The oil train blast zone puts millions of Californians at risk. In the Sacramento area alone more than 200,000 people live within the potential impact zone of an oil train disaster.

And at a time when our planet is breaking temperature records every month, doubling down on more fossil fuel infrastructure should be an absolute non-starter.

We need to do everything in our power to urge the Benicia City Council to reject this proposal for the sake of public safety in our communities, and our fight against climate change.

RSVP to speak out against Valero’s oil train plan on April 4th.

Thanks for fighting oil trains.

Elijah Zarlin, Director of Climate Campaigns
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Source 1: “Oil Train Blast Zone,” Stand.Earth