Traditional Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone Lands (SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — In a state where Big Oil has captured the regulators from top to bottom, the recently launched Protect the Bay coalition is asking local community members to sign a petition aimed at stopping a US Army Corps of Engineers project to dredge San Francisco Bay.
The coalition is criticizing the proposal as “a move by President Donald Trump and Big Oil to expand the fossil fuel industry in California” — including increasing imports of Canadian tar sands crude oil and increasing exports of U.S. coal — and is calling on elected leaders to oppose the project.
The proposal, called the San Francisco to Stockton Navigation Improvement Project, would involve dredging a deeper channel through 13 miles of the San Francisco Bay and the Carquinez Strait, the coalition said.
“At a time when we should be steadily ramping down fossil fuel production, this dredging proposal encourages just the opposite,” said Andres Soto, Richmond Community Organizer, Communities for a Better Environment. ”It gifts four Bay Area oil refineries with a nearly $15 million annual subsidy, pumps up the production of oil products, multiplies the risk of oil spills in our waters, threatens marine life, and increases greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution in local refinery communities.”
The dredging project would enable the transport of greater amounts of crude oil imports and refined product exports to and from several oil refineries and other industries in the Bay Area, according to the draft environmental impact statement.
“This dredging project is by no means an ‘improvement,” said Mary Zeiser, Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth. “It is merely the latest attack on California by the Trump administration, and is part and parcel of previous attempts to expand offshore oil drilling and open public lands to oil and gas leasing. But Californians don’t want anything to do with a fossil fuel industry proposal that threatens the future of our climate and the San Francisco Bay.”
The coalition said the dredging proposal also coincides with plans by Bay Area refineries — including an expansion proposal at Phillips 66’s San Francisco Refinery — to process greater quantities of Canadian tar sands crude oil.
“Tar sands, also called diluted bitumen or dilbit, is an extremely toxic, non-floating crude oil that is extremely difficult to clean up in the event of a spill. The dredging proposal could also enable the Port of Stockton to export more U.S. coal to Asia,” the coalition stated.
“At a time when we should be steadily ramping down fossil fuel production, this dredging proposal encourages just the opposite,” said Andres Soto, Richmond Community Organizer, Communities for a Better Environment. ”It gifts four Bay Area oil refineries with a nearly $15 million annual subsidy, pumps up the production of oil products, multiplies the risk of oil spills in our waters, threatens marine life, and increases greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollution in local refinery communities.”
"The Army Corp of Engineers should be providing public benefits, not a private benefit for Phillips 66, which is the apparent beneficiary of the dredging proposal,” said Jay Gunkelman of Air Watch Bay Area. “We spend more supporting oil companies than education, so if Phillips 66 needs dredging, they should pay for it themselves. Phillips 66 already gets more than their fair share of our tax support.”
The petition calls on state and federal leaders to oppose the project, including Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, Rep. John Garamendi, Rep. Jerry McNerney, Rep. Mike Thompson, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris.
“Our elected leaders must raise their voices in opposition to this dredging project in San Francisco Bay,” said Shoshana Wechsler of Sunflower Alliance. “We are calling on our state and federal leaders to safeguard our bay and the health of our communities by preventing any more fossil fuel industry expansion at a time when Californians need to steer toward a renewable energy future.”
Protect the Bay coalition members include Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), Crockett-Rodeo United to Defend the Environment (CRUDE), Idle No More SF Bay, Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County, Rodeo Citizens Association, Stand.earth, and Sunflower Alliance. Supporting organizations include 350 Bay Area, Amazon Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth US, Fresh Air Vallejo, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, and San Francisco Baykeeper.
Read and sign the petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/dont-let-trump-and-his-oil-company-cronies-dredge-the-san-francisco-bay.
Learn more about the Protect the Bay coalition: https://www.protectthebay.org/.
Background: Oil and gas drilling has expanded under Newsom
Despite California’s “green” image, Governor Jerry Brown’s oil and gas regulators approved over 21,000 new oil and gas wells, including over 200 new offshore wells, according to a 2018 analysis of Department of Conservation data by the Fracktracker Alliance. The approval of oil and gas drilling permits has increased even more under the Newsom Administration to date.
As a result Newsom fired head oil and gas regulator Ken Harris for doubling the fracking permits issued during Newsom’s first five months as Governor and reports of conflicts of interest among eight senior officials, as documented in my article on a groundbreaking report by Consumer Watchdog and the Fractracker Alliance: www.dailykos.com/…
From January 1 to June 3 of 2018, the State’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) approved 2,365 new oil and gas well permits and 191 fracking permits, according to Department of Conservation data analyzed by the two groups.
The data reveals that this year regulators have increased the number of permits granted for drilling new wells by 35.3%, well reworks by 28.3%, and fracking by 103.2%, as compared to the permitting rate during the final year of the Brown administration in 2018.
Even more alarming, of the 2,365 well permits issued, 1064 or 45% of them benefitted oil companies invested in by DOGGR officials, the groups reported.
The latest conflicts of interest by eight DOGGR officials revealed by Consumer Watchdog are only the latest in series of conflicts of interests held by state regulatory officials. In one of the biggest apparent conflicts of interest of the past 20 years, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create faux “marine protected areas” in Southern California (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp). Her organization was promoting the expansion of offshore fracking and drilling at the same time that she led the effort to create “marine protected areas” in the same region from 2009 to 2012.
Reheis-Boyd also served on the task forces to create “marine protected areas” on the Central Coast, North Central Coast and North Coast from 2004 to 2012.
It is no surprise that these faux “marine protected areas” fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil and gas drilling, pollution, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.
The oil industry is the largest and most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento and the Western States Petroleum Association, the trade association for the oil industry in California and other Western states, is the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization.
WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: (5) working in collaboration with media; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations.
For more information, go to: www.dailykos.com/...