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California has its own version of this in the north east Bay Area- with a high density of refineries blowing directly downwind into dense poor communities. Chev
by _yb2s 3y ago
California has its own version of this in the north east Bay Area- with a high density of refineries blowing directly downwind into dense poor communities. Chevron owns and pays for the local newspaper covering that area, which spreads misinformation about the health risks to the community.
It amazes me you have this dense urban area with ultra strict vehicle emissions rules, where low income people struggle to get their cars to pass, and yet you have these refineries down the street flaring regularly and sending up massive plumes of black soot.
- reducesuffering 3y agoWhat came first, the refinery or the people? It was the refinery in most (all?) of those cases in north east Bay Area. People chose to get more bang for their buck and live near an oil refinery (but doesn't excuse any misinformation about the risks), like people move next to railroad tracks and then complain about the noise and want them to stop blowing horns. Still I agree with you that there should be almost zero tolerance for any emissions and an "oopsie" every year should be met with a fine of a year's profits every year then.
- _yb2s 3y agoThe refineries were there first, well before these areas were populated at all. I don't think that should give them a forever license to massively pollute. Back when they were built, and started to become populated the health risks were unknown... the people living there now mostly grew up there, and there was never a conscious choice to move somewhere dangerous. In the case of Richmond, the poor black communities directly downstream of the plant are mostly descended from the workers brought in to build liberty ships during World War II. This was during a time when black people were legally restricted from getting decent jobs other than these temporary wartime exceptions, so moving to this place was their only opportunity to get a decent job. They lacked the legal freedom to make a choice about where to live in the sense you are implying, because of racist laws. As a society, it is time to look at phasing these refineries out entirely, rather than relocating them. We already have the technology to do transportation in other ways, and it's already much cheaper when you count all of the health and environmental externalities. Already, 50% of diesel fuel in California is from renewable biomass, so you don't need an electric car for non-petroleum transportation. One of the north bay refineries was shut down a few years back, and converted to a renewable diesel plant.
- reducesuffering 3y agoNot much to disagree with. 2 out of 5 of them were just announced to be converted[0]. [0] https://www.ktvu.com/news/2-of-5-of-bay-area-refineries-to-stop-making-gasoline.amp https://www.ktvu.com/news/2-of-5-of-bay-area-refineries-to-s...
- _yb2s 3y agoThat is great news- Tesoro Golden Eagle also did the same, so that actually makes 3 out of 5 that are converting.
- asdff 3y agoSocal has a lot of places that are damned from a refinery like this too. El Segundo, Wilmington, Torrance, Signal Hill, but also and anywhere downwind of LAX or the Port of LA/LB, plus other industrial centers, or really anywhere because they pull oil from all over the place. Beverly Center mall for example has oil wells hidden on site. Same with Beverly hills highschool. It's probably at least a few million people I'd guess in areas with air quality affected by industry and especially the petroleum industry. It's amazing how all you hear are crickets on the issue from Sacramento, while the state's own university researchers routinely publish on the issue to deaf ears. I guess it just goes to show where the money and true priorities lie among the legislature.
- rootusrootus 3y ago> Beverly Center mall for example has oil wells hidden on site That's fascinating to read about. It sounds like all the drilling for that oil field happens from that one location now? They use angled bores to draw from different parts of the field.
- asdff 3y agoThere are a few more sites in west LA alone they pull from. Some fields are still pretty large though, like the Inglewood Oil Field (1). Many are idle though and apparently 2/3 of idle wells leak and cause health issues in California. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=cf781e76361e44f2b1dfa78c62dd62c2 https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=cf78...
- jahewson 3y agoA year ago LA voted to end phase out oil extraction by 2045.
- mixmastamyk 3y agoThe Santa Susanna Field Lab had at least one nuclear reactor (built without containment) blow up. They also dumped toxic chemicals and waste often. In the hills between LA and Ventura counties. Story was buried for decades. Lots of folks in Simi Valley have died of cancer. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory - https://parentsagainstssfl.com/ https://parentsagainstssfl.com/
- jahewson 3y agoOk but the other three refineries in the Bay Area are not adjacent to low-income areas (I live next to one!). So what exactly is your point?
- _yb2s 3y agoI'm not sure what you are talking about? I was generalizing for people not familiar with the area, and lumping together the entire "North East Bay" which includes all of the Bay Area refineries. West/North Richmond, Rodeo, Martinez, and Benicia all would be crazy expensive regions if it weren't for the massive health issues with living in those areas.
- jahewson 3y agoThe existence of Vallejo (100k population, no refinery, cheap) disproves your claim.
- dekhn 3y agoAbout once a year, there's an emergency at the refinery, that leads to flaring or other problems, and there's a community alert. For example, a few days ago: https://www.chemanalyst.com/NewsAndDeals/NewsDetails/flaring-incident-spurs-alert-at-chevron-richmond-refinery-on-saturday-24515 https://www.chemanalyst.com/NewsAndDeals/NewsDetails/flaring...