Category Archives: Take Action

Draft EIR, Public Comment, Take Action, Valero Crude By Rail

City of Benicia public comments on Valero Crude By Rail received during May, 2014

Your thoughts on Valero Crude By Rail can make a difference!

The City is posting comments each month now.  Download May here: City of Benicia public comments on Valero Crude By Rail received during May, 2014  (Download is 1.62 MB)

Note that the City’s public comments are now PDFs with searchable text, however the comments for a given period of time all appear in a single document.  The index at the top of the document is neither paginated nor linked.  To find a particular comment, just search on that person’s name.  Older comments and project documents are on the City of Benicia’s Valero Crude By Rail page.

The Draft EIR is scheduled for release a week from today, on Tuesday, June 10.  Valero’s proposal will NOT be agendized on the Planning Commission’s June 12, 7pm meeting at City Hall.  The formal hearing will be at the Planning Commission’s July 10 meeting, 7pm, City Hall.  BE THERE!

Your email comments on the project are always helpful:

  1. Send your thoughts to the City of Benicia  –  You can make a difference!  Ask questions and voice your concerns to the Planning Commission, City staff and our Mayor and City Council.   (Note: When writing to the City Manager and Principal Planner, it helps to open with the phrase, “Please add my comments to the public legal record on Valero’s Crude By Rail Project and incorporate them as part of the review of its DEIR. “)  Send your comments to:
    • Brad Kilger, City Manager, by email: bkilger@ci.benicia.ca.us AND
    • Amy Million, Principal Planner, Community Development Department, by email: amillion@ci.benicia.ca.us.
    • Both may also be contacted by delivery to 250 East L Street, Benicia, CA 94510, or by Fax: (707) 747-1637.
    • To direct email to Planning Commissioners, send email to Amy Million, requesting her to forward on to Planning Commissioners.
  2. Send your thoughts to the news media:

More ways to help STOP Crude by Rail…

Take Action

Petition: Stop the Killer Oil Trains

Repost from Oil Change International
[Editor: Links on this page take YOU to Oil Change International’s website where you can sign their petition to President Obama and the Department of Transportation.  ALSO – please sign our SafeBenicia petition!  – RS]

Stop the Killer Oil Trains

bomb-train

Big Oil is getting desperate: with pipelines being blocked left and right, the industry is increasingly turning to oil-by-rail as a way to transport their climate-destroying product to market. What’s worse, they’re doing it with ancient railcars that are prone to explode catastrophically when derailed.

We already know that oil-by-rail is not only dangerous, but deadly. In the summer of 2013, a train derailed in Lac-Megantic, Canada, leveling buildings and killing 47 people. Since then there have been dozens of train derailments and tanker car explosions across the continent, including on April 30th right in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia.

Right now, there are nearly a million barrels of oil per day crisscrossing the country by rail and there could be a whole lot more in the coming years. It’s time to stand up to the special interests and demand the safety of our communities and our climate be put ahead of corporate profits.

Write to President Obama and the Department of Transportation demanding an end to bomb trains.

California Regulation, Davis CA, Spill prevention and response, Take Action, Uprail communities, Valero Benicia Refinery

Davis and “Uprail” Communities organize to oppose Crude By Rail

Repost from Cool Davis, Davis, California

Crude-by-Rail Opportunity for Written Comments

Workshop on How to Respond to the Draft EIR
Wednesday, June 18 from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Fellowship Hall at Davis Community Church (421 D Street)
Instruction, brainstorming, and organizing our efforts
Refreshments!

The Draft EIR for the Valero rail terminal Project in Benicia (70,000 barrels of crude oil /day or one unit train of 100 cars over 1 mile) will be released for a 45-day public comment period on June 10, with a possible extension to 60 or 90 days for review.

Our city will comment and has invited surrounding jurisdictions to join them. Other organizations and concerned individuals are also invited to make written comments during the comment period. To inform yourself about the project and begin thinking how you might respond, some recommended resources are:

• https://beniciaindependent.com It posts all the official documents related to the proposed project as well as a plethora of articles.

• http://www.sightline.org is also a terrific resource for the bigger picture of crude-by-rail and also coal and natural gas export. http://www.sightline.org/research/the-northwests-pipeline-on-rails/ and http://daily.sightline.org/blog_series/the-northwests-pipeline-on-rails/ This blog series is outstanding, although it is aimed at Washington and Oregon which are besieged by trains compared to CA so far.

• Natural Resources Defense Council letter on safety (30 pages) http://yolanoclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/rail-safety-comments-final-group-letter.pdf

• Two reports by Forest Ethics,    http://yolanoclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/off-the-rails-ultimate-nw-forst-ethics-report.pdf     and http://forestethics.org//sites/forestethics.huang.radicaldesigns.org/files/ForestEthics-Refineries-Report-Sept2012.pdf

• Document by Attorney General Kamala Harris on safety and health concerns http://yolanoclimateaction.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/kamala-harris-addresses-inadequate-eir-on-wespac-in-pittsburg/#more-107

• An article on liability which is an angle that may not be addressed in the DEIR, http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/03/17/record-year-oil-train-accidents-leaves-insurers-wary
Gov. Brown added $6.7 million to the Office of Spill Prevention & Response to handle accidents.  It won’t go far in a catastrophe.

• More on risk assessment for railroads and who will be responsible for liability. http://daily.sightline.org/2014/05/19/risk-assessment-for-railroads/

• Rachel Maddow’s May 2, 2014 broadcast, “Public Safety at risk by Oil Train Shipments” at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

Key areas for uprail responders will most likely include public safety, the hazards of spills in terms of the environment, the insistence on the Right-to-know laws, health risks, liability issues, and the true cost of oil in terms of climate change.  Benicia has to respond to all comments in their final EIR, so the more specific, thoughtful and numerous our comments, the better.  Different people can address different aspects.

Another opportunity for citizen response: The Phillips 66 Santa Maria refinery in San Luis Obispo County request for a rail spur for 5 oil trains of 88 cars per week expects to release their Draft EIR possibly in July.

California Regulation, Fracking, Take Action

California SB1132 (Fracking Moratorium) fails in Senate

UPDATE:
From: Judi Sullivan
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:13 PM
Subject: California SB1132 Fails to Pass in the CA Senate

According to Senator Mitchell’s office at around 4:00 p.m. today, SB 1132 failed with a vote of 16 Ayes( yes votes) to 16 Noes (no votes), with 8 senators abstaining.  21 votes were needed for it to pass.  The oil companies won this round.

California Senate Bill 1132 (Fracking Moratorium) fails  on May 28 – another vote on May 29

[Editor: I received the following report and call to action from Judi Sullivan.  Read and make those phone calls!  – RS]

The vote was close.  18 to 16.  21 votes  are needed to pass the Bill.  A repeal was requested and granted.  Another vote will be taken tomorrow on the Bill and that one will be final.

It was suggested to call or to email the following Democratic Senators, or even better, if you know any of their constituents, to ask them to call and request a YES vote on SB 1132.  The democratic senators who voted against the Bill are:

S. Lara from Long Beach:  916-651-4033,  S. Torres from San San Diego:  916-652-4032, S. Hernandez from L.A:  926-651-4024.  I’m not sure where these other senators are from but you can look them up.  All represent  the fracking areas.  S. Correia, I think is from Modesto,  916-652-4034, , S. Waso:  I think is from the L A area. I don’t have his number.

Senator Mitchell’s office representative didn’t think it would be worth it to call the other Republican Senators who voted against the Bill as they aren’t likely to change their minds.

We still have a chance.  Only three swing votes are needed. I’m going to call all of them again and I hope that some of you will make some calls, too. If you know anyone in the districts that voted against the Bill, it’s important to have them realize that they are the most vulnerable to  the health and safety dangers of fracking.  Any of us can call, but the ones with the most influence  will naturally be those who live in the districts where a change vote could make a difference.

Even if the Bill fails, a strong stand has been taken by the public.  The oil companies have felt the strength of the grassroots effort. Testimonies given at the hearings were  specific, compelling   and well documented scientifically with none of the statistics re: concern for the health and safety of our earth, air, water, wildlife and people  refuted by the opposition.

Progress has been made.  Awareness is growing, as is our power base. This may or may not be reflected in the vote tomorrow,  but as a movement, we ARE on the rise and will prevail.

Much Love and Light,

Judi

Later: Another democratic senator to call that was left off the first list

Democratic Senator Galiano from Orange City:  916-651-4005.

Explaining concerns in addition  to asking for a YES vote is most effective.

Passing this  Bill does not effect their district’s current revenue from fracking unless current fracking sites are not following regulations set by SB 4. SB 1132 prohibits more oil stimulation wells from being established until health and safety issues for the population, land , air and water quality can be properly addressed and regulated, extending accountability by requiring a DEIR by July 2015.

In addition to other comments being made, I also have been mentioning that our city, for the first time in our history, is not receiving a water allotment from the State , emphasizing the drain being experienced up north which is related to the enormous amount of water required for fracking.

The final vote in the Senate on this Bill for this year is today.  If it doesn’t pass, the oil companies will have free reign to drill more wells.  When this Bill was first introduced, 90 more wells were planned.  That estimate has increased considerably.

Please do what you can.  It only takes a few minutes.

Thank you.

Judi Sullivan