This may be the most important
E-FORUM you have ever received.
California Attorney General Jerry
Brown has sent each Richmond City Council
member a letter criticizing the direction that
Richmond
City staff appears to be heading in the approval process for the Chevron
Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project. The letter (Click
here for a copy) concludes with the following admonition:
While the
FEIR indicates that the GHG [greenhouse gas] mitigation plan must
be approved by the City, it would be better at the outset to set
forth the conditions the City wants. Otherwise, the City would
be left with the choice of either accepting the proposed plan it
does not want or starting all over again, wasting valuable time
and money.
We urge
the City Council to address these issues by requiring specific
and enforceable mitigation and ensuring a full discussion of
impacts in the FEIR.
There is a way that the City can
conform to Jerry Brown’s advice. The Planning Commission
can adopt a set of Conditional Use Permit (CUP) conditions that
require Chevron to invest prescribed amounts of money IN
RICHMOND RIGHT NOW to mitigate greenhouse gases and to protect
the health, safety and welfare of the people of
Richmond , as allowed by CEQA and the Conditional Use Permit process.
Although Brown was addressing the CEQA process, the City has even more
latitude in the CUP process. The legal test is whether the conditions
protect the public’s health, safety or welfare and whether they
have a reasonable public purpose, which would include a connection
to the project.
The Planning Commission will hold
a public hearing to receive public comments and make a decision
on the project’s Design Review permit, Conditional Use Permit
and adequacy of the Environmental Impact report (including a Draft
and Final EIR) only nine days from now, on March 20, 2008. Click
here for the full agenda announcement.
The Chevron Energy and Hydrogen
Renewal Project is exactly the type of equitable development and
social justice issue we talked about in
New Orleans , and with your help, we can do something about it to improve
the quality of life in
Richmond
’s downwind and fenceline communities, which are also
Richmond
’s most challenged communities.
This project will result in more
pollution in
Richmond and more greenhouse gas emissions. If approved, it must be
mitigated by measures that will offset its negative impacts. I didn’t
make this up. This is what California Attorney General Jerry Brown
is telling us.
Click here for a list of $100 million of
“Community Impact Projects” to mitigate greenhouse gases and
protect the health, safety and welfare of
Richmond residents. I am challenging you to help make equitable development,
social justice and smart growth work right here in Richmond right now
by organizing grass roots support for this $100 million of “Community
Impact Projects.”
You can support the $100 million “Proposed
CUP Conditions to Protect the Public Health, Safety and Welfare” by
letting your Planning Commissioners know
that you support the $100 million CUP Conditions.
With your help, I believe our Planning Commission and City Council
will do the right thing.
Do not expect that City staff or
the City Attorney’s Office will be sympathetic or supportive.
They are faint of heart and have neither the chutzpah nor cojones
that Jerry Brown has. They are afraid of making a mistake and always
take the most conservative position. They will equivocate, parse
and prevaricate rather than take an aggressive stand for the people
of
Richmond . Like the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy (also see 1 Corinthians
16:13), as he summoned Timothy in an admonition about leadership and
responsibility, our Planning Commission and City Council must be “strong,
brave and steadfast,” and must strike out on their own to do
what is right, even in the face of timid bureaucrats and hypercautious
lawyers.
Planning Commissioners and their
contact information is listed below:
Background on the project can be
found in the sources listed below:
- Jerry Brown Remains Skeptical
of Chevron EIR, March 8, 2008
- Who is Telling the Truth?,
March 6, 2008
- Richmond on the Precipice?,
March 2, 2008
- Mitigating Greenhouse
Gases from the Chevron Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project,
February 23, 2008
- AT 1.2 Million Pounds,
Chevron is Region's Third Largest Polluter, February
22, 2008
- Design Review Board Scolds
Chevron, February 6, 2008
- Chevron Reaps Massive
Record Profits in 2007, February 2, 2008
- One Hand Giveth; the
Other Taketh Away, February 2, 2008
- Chevron Energy and Hydrogen
Renewal Project and Solar Energy, January 27, 2008
- Trees and the Chevron
Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project, January 27, 2008
- Whitewashing and Greenwashing
the Chevron Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project, January
26, 2008
- Chevron Project Goes
to Design Review Board Without Final EIR, January 24, 2008
Project Description
The proposed Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project consists of
a number of component projects, including Hydrogen Plant Replacement,
Power Plant Replacement, Reformer Replacement, and Hydrogen Purity
Improvements. In general, the project would modify, replace and
install typical refining equipment such as piping, heat exchangers,
instrumentation, catalytic reactors, fractionation equipment, pumps,
compressors, furnaces, tanks, hydrogen sulfide absorption capacity,
hydrogen generation capacity and their associated facilities, including
steam and electrical generation as well as some refinery buildings
and infrastructure. These changes would include construction and
installation of new facilities as well as replacement of or modifications
to existing facilities. The project would not increase refinery
use of crude oil beyond currently permitted levels, although process
upgrades would allow the refinery to use a wider range of crude
oils. Included in the project components
are upgrades to increase energy efficiency, reduce air emissions, and
increase equipment reliability.
Final Environmental Impact Report
(FEIR)
The FEIR for this project
is now available. The FEIR consists of the Response to Comments
and the Response to Comments Appendices in combination with the
Draft EIR and the Draft EIR Appendices.
An electronic copy of the FEIR is
available for review below:
Hard copies of the FEIR are
also available at the following locations:
WestSide Branch Library - Main Branch
325 Civic Center Avenue
Richmond , CA. 94804
Richmond Planning and Building Services Department
1401 Marina Way South
Richmond , CA. 94804.
The Planning Commission will determine the adequacy of the FEIR and,
if adequate, will certify that the FEIR was prepared in compliance
with the California Environmental Quality Act. The FEIR will be considered
by the Planning Commission at a noticed public hearing. If the Final
EIR is certified and after the City takes final action on the proposed
project, the City will file a Notice of Determination. After the Notice
of Determination is filed, a 30-day statute of limitations for court
challenges begins to run.
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