Photo of the Rodeo San Francisco Refinery is a oil refinery located in Rodeo, California, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. “Remaining” by Thomas Hawk, CC BY-NC 2.0
MARTINEZ, Calif.— The Contra Costa County Superior Court today ordered Phillips 66 to halt its plan to operate a biofuel refinery in Rodeo, California. The court put the Bay Area megaproject on hold until the county fully complies with environmental review requirements that it violated when first approving the project.
Communities for a Better Environment and the Center for Biological Diversity asked the court to prohibit operations at what would be one of the world’s largest biofuel refinery while the county works to address major legal flaws in its environmental analysis.
“This is a huge victory for nearby residents who’ve raised serious concerns about pollution that will come from this giant refinery,” said Shana Lazerow, legal director of Communities for a Better Environment. “Allowing this project to operate before the environmental review process is complete would’ve rigged the whole decision in favor of the refinery operator.”
See the full Center for Biological Diversity’s press release featuring CBE here.