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Campaigns
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Chevron CampaignSenor Scientist Greg Karras and Chevron Spokesman Dean O’Hare on KPFA Forum April 29, 2010 CBE, our allies and the community of Richmond have won another major victory against Chevron! On Monday, April 26, 2010 the California Court of Appeals ruled that: 1) The City of Richmond's Environmental Impact Report for Chevron's massive refinery expansion project "was far from being an informative document" because "the EIR's project description is inconsistent and obscure as to whether the Project enables the Refinery to process heavier crude." 2) Chevron and the City's decision to defer how Chevron would reduce the 898,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions expected from this project annually violated state law (CEQA) because, among other things, the EIR "divulged little or no information about how it quantified the Project's greenhouse gas emissions, offered no assurance that the plan for how the Project's greenhouse gas emissions would be mitigated to a net-zero standard was both feasible and efficacious, and created no objective criteria for measuring success." (p26) In addition, the Court held that the "EIR completely fails to properly establish, analyze, and consider an environmental baseline." The court cites CBE's recent, March 2010, groundbreaking Supreme Court victory against ConocoPhillips involving CEQA as direction as to how this baseline must be established. The City will now have to circulate a new EIR that discloses the true scope of the project and it will have to describe how it will avoid or reduce significant impacts. Throughout the legal process, Chevron has used jobs to hold our communities hostage and threat of leaving Richmond to force us to choose between our family's health and having jobs when the reality is, we need both. Now that the court of appeal has spoken, we hope to resolve the jobs issue quickly, as well. This is a huge victory in protecting our communities from additional toxic emissions and global warming pollution. It is a huge victory for the Richmond community and for the Environmental Justice movement. This victory represents years of grassroots organizing and building a movement to examine the real impacts of refining low-quality and more toxic crude oil on community's health. In the news:
Access All Recent Press here. Shareholders Meeting: Re-Cap (5.27.2009)
True Cost of Chevron Report Mentions CBE/Richmond/Chevron's Refinery (page 18) See Counter-Ad about Richmond (page 9)
San Ramon CA - Chevron shareholders were given a full account of the true costs of Chevron's global operations by a delegation of representatives of Chevron affected communities from the across the nation and around the world. Outside supporters filled the entryway, closing Chevron's front gate with a vibrant rally. Representatives from Nigeria, Ecuador, Richmond and the Philippines, were joined inside by those representing communities from Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Alberta to present to shareholders an alternative annual report, The True Cost of Chevron. "Chevron's response is emblematic of its approach to local communities-a systemic disregard and mockery of the communities in which it operates," said Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, California. While O'Reilly tried to quiet deep shareholder concerns, outside members of Bay Area Iraq Veterans Against the War, Unconventional Action, Bay Area Rising Tide, Communities for a Better Environment, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, the Burmese Democratic Club, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and many more made sure their concerns could not be ignored. MORE ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN: The Chevron Refinery expansion project in Richmond will build the capacity to refine much DIRTIER crude oil, which means more POLLUTION, increased risk of explosions, fires, spills and releases of poisons into the air of Richmond (and greater Bay Area) residents. Its a matter of life and death for refinery workers and Richmond/Bay Area residents that Richmond define a new path with solutions that protect the community's health and environment. Richmond City Council approved the expansion project without a decent circulation of its Environmental Impacts Report (EIR). We demand recirculation of the EIR, comprehensive oil quality condition (crude cap) that would prevent pollution by limiting the type of crude coming into the refinery, and funds for the city to community controlled in an open process (Measure T). You can read more on what has transpired in Richmond thus far by clicking here. Listen to an interview with CBE staff about our fight to "Cap the Crude" (Jun 20, 2008) - KPFA Interview CBE Organizer Jessica Tovar explains the Chevron Refinery Expansion's many flaws (March 15, 2008) - Richmond Protest Watch CBE Protest on the campaign here, October 2008 Read (October 23, 2008) how CBE & Allies' lawsuit will challenge Richmond City Council's approval of Chevron Refinery Project Access CBE's official Press Release (September 4, 2008) announcing the law suit. Watch a short film about our work in Richmond made and delivered in mass in Europe (in French), April 2009
For more information on the current status of the Chevron Campaign, contact Jessica Tovar (510) 302-0430 x 24 or Ana Orozco (510) 302-0430 x 12, Contra Costa County Community Organizers.
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