Latest news with #Valero
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oil helped this Bay Area town grow into a wealthy suburb. Now it's facing a fiscal crisis
As Benicia Mayor Steve Young guided his metallic blue Toyota Venza through a long-shuttered military base on his city's eastern outskirts, he pointed at the towering stacks billowing steam along a cloudless horizon. 'I can't tell you how much I've thought about that place over the past month,' Young said. Perched atop the north bank of the Carquinez Strait, about 35 miles north of San Francisco, the Valero oil refinery was a driving force behind Benicia's transformation from tiny blue-collar town to wealthy midsize suburb. With many locals now concerned that Valero will follow through on its threat to close that refinery next spring, this bucolic burg of roughly 26,000 residents must begin to brace for life without its largest employer, taxpayer and charitable giver. A slew of unknowns make that tricky. Among Benicians' most pressing questions: Will the city really need years, like some experts predict, to know how many of the refinery's 900 acres are usable for other purposes? Even if officials can develop that land into housing or commercial property, how many more years would they need before they finally see the area generate revenue? And, in the meantime, what can Benicia do to avoid a full-blown fiscal crisis? 'Sometimes, the not-knowing keeps you up at night,' said Young, a retired government administrator with a white beard and raspy voice. 'The stakes feel high.' Not long ago, Young was one of Valero's more formidable adversaries — a proud progressive who once helped scuttle the petroleum giant's plans to transport oil to Benicia by rail. Now, just six weeks after Valero announced its intention to 'idle, restructure or cease' operations at its Benicia refinery by next April, he is advocating for the company to stay at least another couple of years. Nestled at the mouth of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, with a quaint downtown, easy access to nature and sweeping waterfront views of the Carquinez Bridge, Benicia is no typical 'refinery town.' But after 25 years of soaring inflation and minimal economic growth, its financial situation has become tenuous, at best. Many Benicians worry that without more time to prepare, their scenic bedroom community could struggle post-Valero. On a sunny Friday afternoon in mid-May, while driving toward Valero's collection of stacks and holding tanks, Young conceded that he has heard plenty of locals express fear that Benicia might become 'another Vallejo.' Despite being separated only by a short commute along Interstate 780, Benicia and Vallejo often feel worlds apart. In addition to being five times Benicia's size, Vallejo has more crime, more empty storefronts downtown, more poverty and more negative news articles. Yet, as Valero's recent announcement reinforced, even tony communities like Benicia aren't immune from major setbacks. Nearly half of its homeowners have lived there for at least 45 years. Many of them tend to dislike change. With little new infrastructure in recent decades, Benicia has had a harder time keeping up with rising costs and staying in the black. Over the past few years, city officials had to slash $6 million from their $60 million operating budget. In the process, Benicia laid off city employees for the first time in four decades, consolidated several city departments and even reduced its police force. All that cost-cutting reminded some Benicians of what Vallejo once endured. At the height of the housing crisis in 2008, 12 years after the closure of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard rocked its economy, Vallejo filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Huge police department cuts ensued, exacerbating public-safety concerns and further deterring business development. As Young now tries to convince Valero to keep its Benicia refinery open, he can't shake the feeling that the community he loves could soon experience its own financial catastrophe. That oil plant is responsible for about 20% of the city's tax base. If Valero does leave in 10 months, Benicia would have no simple way to fill the economic void. City leaders might need to ask voters for another tax increase. And, even if one is approved, residents could still experience a decline in their standard of living. Young is already preparing to make daunting decisions about deeper cuts to city services. Possibilities include limiting library hours, closing Benicia's public pool, gutting community center programming or even canceling its popular summer concert series. 'We're getting to the point where we're running out of fat to trim,' city manager Mario Giuliani said. 'The amenities that people were enjoying for a long time, well, they might not be able to do that as much anymore.' Roughly six months before Valero published its now-infamous news release, state and regional air regulators fined the San Antonio-based oil giant a record $82 million for secretly exceeding toxic emissions standards at its Benicia refinery for 15 years. Then, just three weeks ago, that same refinery prompted surrounding neighborhoods to briefly shelter in place after a large fire ignited at its facility. To refinery critics, both incidents underscored the inherent pitfalls of having an oil plant so close to town. At a time when California is implementing some of the most aggressive climate-change policies in the nation, including a goal to achieve 90% clean energy by 2035, the Benicia refinery has become notorious for being one of the state's largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Such backlash is the biggest reason Valero, which faces increased oversight from city leaders should the refinery remain in Benicia, wants out of California. During a recent earnings call, Valero CEO Lane Riggs blamed the state's tough 'regulatory and enforcement environment' in explaining the company's intent to shut down the Benicia refinery. 'I get the desire for renewable-energy sources, but cities have to figure out a way to work with these oil companies,' said Danny Bernardini, business manager of a group of 15 unions that represent hundreds of tradespeople, many of whom work at the Valero refinery. 'As long as people need gas in their cars, communities like Benicia will depend on these jobs.' Young recognizes as much, which is why he is lobbying for Valero to stick around while the city plots what's next. Part of his pitch is the matter of national security. As the sole provider of jet fuel to nearby Travis Air Force Base, Young argues, the Benicia refinery's shutdown could pose a serious threat to public safety. To buoy Benicia's chances of keeping the plant open, he might even petition the state to ease some of the regulations Valero finds so oppressive. Few can fault residents who are confused about Young's pro-Valero stance. When he ran for mayor in 2020, that company spent about $250,000 in ads and mailers attacking his campaign. One of the more memorable pieces of propaganda, Young said, was an ad that depicted his face looming over a baseball field. The accompanying tagline — 'Who votes against kids playing ball? Steve Young did' — was a reference to Young being the lone City Council vote against a proposed $1 million renovation to youth baseball fields during the pandemic. By then, Young was already well acquainted with Valero's tactics. In 2016, four years after the UC Berkeley grad had moved with his wife to Benicia from Costa Rica, he helped lead the city planning commission's opposition against Valero's proposal to begin bringing oil in by train. Many locals remember those contentious meetings as the turning point in Benicia's relationship with Valero. Finally, after 16 years of largely kowtowing to the company's demands, city leaders had sent a strong message: Watch out for Benicia's best interest — or else. When Young meets with Valero executives these days, he tries to strike a more compromising tone. Like many other Benicia residents, he stresses about all that could be lost if Valero leaves town: the jobs, the tax revenue, even the sense of place. Benicia has long taken pride in its status as a 'full-service city,' meaning it provides the gamut of municipal services directly to residents. With a park for every thousand residents, A-rated public schools, bustling downtown storefronts and a postcard-worthy waterfront, some locals lovingly call it a 'Poor Man's Sausalito.' Its Fourth of July parade is so well-attended that residents joke that late arrivals risk being involved in another 'chair-gate.' Along Benicia's public beaches, white signs with illustrations of squatting dogs implore visitors to 'PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL.' 'Every service we have, from the festivals to the dog-poop dispensers, helps make Benicia special,' City Council Member Kari Birdseye said. 'Could we survive without those things? Sure. But if we have to go without them because Valero is gone, people would definitely feel the difference.' Unlike nearby Richmond, where Chevron's refinery is a prominent feature of the city skyline, many Benicians can go entire days without seeing Valero's stacks and holding tanks. But regardless of whether they know it, Benicians' day-to-day life has been shaped in some way by that oil plant. With 428 permanent employees, and hundreds more contract workers, the Valero refinery accounts for well over twice as many jobs as Benicia's next-biggest employer. Mark Felsoci spent the past 28 years as a crane operator contracting at the refinery. In that time, he has made lifelong friendships with some of his co-workers, raised a family in a peaceful Benicia neighborhood, and helped put a daughter through cosmetology school and a son through college. Now 63 with a full pension, Felsoci plans to retire in July and move to his hometown of Allentown, Pa., where the cost of living is about 35% cheaper. As his last day on the job nears, he sometimes gets emotional listening to younger colleagues fret about what's next. Like Felsoci, many of them spurned college to hone the specialized skills of their chosen trade. If the Valero refinery shutters next spring, they will likely have to swap Benicia's stable hours and lucrative pay for long commutes, cheaper wages and shorter-term contracts. As more and more oil companies flee California's stringent regulations for easier operating conditions elsewhere, refinery workers often feel caught in an odd sort of limbo. About 90% of cars sold in the U.S. still rely on gasoline. Yet, with fewer oil refineries in America's most populous state, workers here must settle for whatever they can find. Then there are all the hotels, restaurants and shops that have long catered to refinery workers. If their primary clientele suddenly vanishes next year, what will become of those Benicia-area businesses? Local nonprofits figure to also feel the strain. Just within the past decade, the refinery has donated more than $20 million to various community investments, including hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to children's charities. 'The American dream is being ripped apart at the seams,' Felsoci said. 'Well-paying jobs like this are hard to come by. The more these oil companies take away, the less people can do with their livelihoods and for their families.' Some Benicians see things differently. Dirk Fulton, a lifelong resident and former City Council member, has spent much of his free time the past couple of weeks papering his hometown with blue-and-red signs that urge city leaders to 'SHUT DOWN THE REFINERY!' In two recent columns posted to a local news site, Fulton downplayed concerns about Valero's likely departure, calling the potential financial repercussions 'exaggerated' and touting the opportunity for a new economic identity. 'I'm trying to retire, but this is too important to just sit on the sidelines and not do what I can to help create a modern vision for the town without an oil refinery,' said Fulton, 71, who has owned several successful businesses in the area, including a couple of gas stations and convenience stores. 'I think it'd be a great day, maybe even a glorious day, for Benicia if we can achieve that.' Young just wants more time. Though Oakland-based real estate firm Signature Development Group announced last month that it's in talks with Valero about potentially building on the refinery site, any such initiative would have to overcome numerous obstacles. There's the costly cleanup process Valero is legally required to complete, which could take as long as a decade. Even then, due to the refinery's half-century of soil and groundwater contamination, Benicia has no guarantees that the site could be fully redeveloped. After having lunch at a Burmese spot on First Street and catching up with a few of his supporters on that recent Friday, Young climbed back into his Toyota and drove to the Benicia Arsenal. Once one of the U.S. Army's most critical stations along the West Coast, that 440-acre facility was Benicia's economic hub for much of the 20th century. As Young drove past the commanding officers' mansion that's now a visual arts center, he reflected on the city's resilience. Many locals had assumed that the Arsenal's shutdown in 1964 would spell the end of Benicia. Yet, thanks largely to the economic boost the refinery's arrival provided a half-decade later, the community didn't just survive — it thrived. In 1970, Benicia was a rural industrial community of about 7,000 residents. Over the next 25 years, Benicia added about 1,000 people per year as its median household income steadily ballooned. It is now Solano County's most affluent city. 'If they could rebound from the loss of their biggest employer back then, why can't we do it now?' Young said. 'We're not going to declare bankruptcy like Vallejo did. We're not going to devastate the police department. Ultimately, everything will be OK. We just have to get through the next few years.'
Western Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Western Telegraph
Record-breaking numbers at Tenby Leisure Centre dance event
More than 220 children from primary and secondary schools across the county performed at Tenby Leisure Centre at a Sport Pembrokeshire Schools Dance event on Tuesday, April 13. They took part in solos and group performances in street dance, lyrical, and all style, judged by Fin, Kelly, Lucy and Kelci. The event saw youngsters given trophies and medals for outstanding performances, and all participants received a certificate. The event was organised by Finola Findlay from FF Dance and Kelly Williams, who also donated the trophies. Valero sponsored the event.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Record-breaking numbers of children take part in dance event
Record-breaking numbers of children took part in a dance event in Pembrokeshire. More than 220 children from primary and secondary schools across the county performed at Tenby Leisure Centre at a Sport Pembrokeshire Schools Dance event on Tuesday, April 13. They took part in solos and group performances in street dance, lyrical, and all style, judged by Fin, Kelly, Lucy and Kelci. The event saw youngsters given trophies and medals for outstanding performances, and all participants received a certificate. The event was organised by Finola Findlay from FF Dance and Kelly Williams, who also donated the trophies. Valero sponsored the event.
CNBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Lightning Round: Valero has had too much of a run, says Jim Cramer
'Mad Money' host Jim Cramer weighs in on stocks including: Valero, IONQ, Verona Pharma, Centrus Energy, and Oklo.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Villaraigosa, despite climate credentials, pivots toward oil industry in run for governor
As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state's struggling oil industry. Villaraigosa's work to expand mass transit, plant trees and reduce carbon emissions made him a favorite of the environmental movement, but the former state Assembly speaker also accepted more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from oil companies and other donors tied to the industry over more than three decades in public life, according to city and state fundraising disclosures reviewed by The Times. Since entering the race last year to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, Villaraigosa has accepted more than $176,000 from donors with ties to the oil industry, including from a company that operates oil fields in the San Joaquin Valley and in Los Angeles County, the disclosures show. The clash between Villaraigosa's environmentalist credentials and oil-industry ties surfaced in the governor's race after Valero announced in late April that its Bay Area refinery would close next year, not long after Phillips 66 said its Wilmington refinery would close in 2025. Villaraigosa is now warning that California drivers could see gas prices soar, blasting as "absurd" policies that he said could have led to the refinery closures. "I'm not fighting for refineries," Villaraigosa said in an interview. "I'm fighting for the people who pay for gas in this state." The refineries are a sore spot for Newsom and for California Democrats, pitting their environmental goals against concerns about the rising cost of living and two of the state's most powerful interest groups — organized labor and environmentalists — against each other. Villaraigosa said Democrats are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in their approach to fighting climate change. He said he hoped no more refineries would close until the state hits more electrification milestones, including building more transmission lines, green-energy storage systems and charging stations for electric cars. The only way for the state to reach "net zero" emissions, he said, is an "all-of-the-above" approach that includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear power and oil and gas. "The notion that we're not going to do that is poppycock," Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa's vocal support for the oil industry has upset some environmental groups that saw him as a longtime ally. "I'm honestly shocked at just how bad it is," said RL Miller, the president of Climate Hawks Vote and the chair of the California Democratic Party's environmental caucus, of the contributions Villaraigosa has accepted since entering the race in July. Miller said Villaraigosa signed a pledge during his unsuccessful run for governor in 2018 not to accept campaign contributions from oil companies and "named executives" at fossil-fuel entities. She said he took the pledge shortly after accepting the maximum allowable contributions from several oil donors in 2017. Miller said that more than $100,000 in donations that Villaraigosa has accepted in this gubernatorial cycle were clear violations of the pledge. That included contributions from the state's largest oil and gas producer, California Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries, as well as the founder of Rocky Mountain Resources, a leader of the oil company Berry Corp., and Excalibur Well Services. "This is bear-hugging the oil industry," she said. Environmental activists view the pledge as binding for future campaigns. Villaraigosa said he has not signed it for this campaign. The economy is dramatically different than it was in 2018, Villaraigosa said, and working-class Americans are being hammered, which he said was a major factor in recent Democratic losses. "We're losing working people, particularly working people who don't have a college education," he said. "Why are we losing them? The cost of living, the cost of gas, the cost of utilities, the cost of groceries." Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said such statements are consistent with Villaraigosa's messaging in recent years. "Villaraigosa is squarely in the moderate lane in the governor's race. That doomed him in 2018, when voters wanted to counterbalance President Trump and Villaraigosa was outflanked by Newsom," Kousser said. "But today, even some Democrats may want to counterbalance the direction that they see Sacramento taking, especially when it comes to cost-of-living issues and the price of gas." He added that the fossil-fuel donations may not be the basis for Villaraigosa's apparent embrace of oil and gas priorities. "When a politician takes campaign contributions from an industry and also takes positions that favor it, that raises the possibility of corruption, of money influencing votes," Kousser said. "But it is also possible that it was the politician's own approach to an issue that attracted the contributions, that their votes attracted money but were not in any way corrupted by it. That may be the case here, where Villaraigosa has held fairly consistent positions on this issue and consistently attracted support from an industry because of those positions." Other Democrats in the 2026 governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, former state Controller Betty Yee and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, have signed the pledge not to accept contributions from oil industry interests, Miller said. Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and businessman Stephen Cloobeck have not. (Cloobeck has never run for office before and has not been asked to sign.) Other gubernatorial candidates have also accepted fossil-fuel contributions, although in smaller numbers than Villaraigosa, state and federal filings show. Becerra accepted contributions from Chevron and California Resources Corp., formerly Occidental Petroleum, while running for attorney general. Atkins took donations from Chevron, Occidental and a trade group for oil companies while running for state Assembly and state Senate. And while running for lieutenant governor, Kounalakis took contributions from executives at oil and mining companies. Campaign representatives for the two main Republican candidates in the race, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, said they welcomed oil-industry donations. Villaraigosa is a fierce defender of his environmental record dating back to his first years as an elected official in the California Assembly. As mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, Villaraigosa set new goals to reduce emissions at the Port of Los Angeles, end the use of coal-burning power plants and shift the city's energy generation toward solar, wind and geothermal sources. The child of a woman who relied on Metro buses, he also branded himself the "transportation mayor." Villaraigosa was a vocal champion for the 2008 sales tax increase that provided the first funding for the extension of the Wilshire Boulevard subway to the Westside. But, he said, Democrats in 2025 have to be realistic that the refinery closures and their goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions could disproportionately affect low-income residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. Villaraigosa's comments underscore a broader divide among Democrats about how to fight climate change without making California even more expensive, or driving out more high-paying jobs that don't require a college education. Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who became the leader of the California Labor Federation in 2022, said that while climate change is a real threat, so is shutting down refineries. "That's a threat to those workers' jobs and lives, and it's also a threat to the price of gas," Gonzalez said. California is not currently positioned to end its reliance on fossil fuels, she said. If the state reduces its refining capacity, she said, it will have to rely on exports from nations that have less environmental and labor safeguards. 'Anyone running for governor has to acknowledge that,' Gonzalez said. Villaraigosa said that while the loss of union jobs at Valero's Bay Area refinery worried him, his primary concern was over the cost of gasoline and household budgets. His comments come as California prepares to square off yet again against the Trump administration over its environmental policies. The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to revoke a federal waiver that allowed California to set its own vehicle emission standards, including a rule that would have ultimately banned the sale of new gas-fueled cars in 2035. Villaraigosa denounced the vote, but said that efforts to fight climate change can't come at the expense of working-class Americans. President Trump has also declared a national energy emergency, calling for increased fossil-fuel production, eliminating environmental reviews and the fast-tracking of projects in potentially sensitive ecosystems and habitats. The Trump administration is also targeting California's environmental standards. Villaraigosa, an Eastside native, started his career as a labor organizer and rose to speaker of the state Assembly before becoming the mayor of Los Angeles. Now 72, Villaraigosa has not held elected office for more than a decade; he finished a distant third in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Over the years, donors affiliated with the fossil-fuel industry have contributed more than $1 million to Villaraigosa's political campaigns and his nonprofit causes, including an after-school program, the city's sports and entertainment commission and an effort to reduce violence by providing programming at city parks during summer nights, according to city and state disclosures. More than half of the contributions and support for Villaraigosa's pet causes, over $582,000, came during his years at Los Angeles City Hall as a council member and mayor. In 2008, billionaire oil and gas magnate T. Boone Pickens donated $150,000 to a city proposition backed by Villaraigosa that levied a new tax on phone and internet use. Pickens made the donation as his company was vying for business at the port of Los Angeles, which is overseen by mayoral appointees and was seeking to reduce emissions by replacing diesel-powered trucks with vehicles fueled by liquid natural gas. The rest of the contributions and other financial support flowed to Villaraigosa's campaign accounts and affiliated committees while he served in the Assembly and during his two gubernatorial runs. These figures do not include donations to independent expenditure committees, since candidates cannot legally be involved in those efforts. Villaraigosa said that while such voters don't subscribe to Republicans' "drill, baby, drill" ethos, he slammed the Democratic Party's focus on such matters and Trump instead of kitchen-table issues. "The cost of everything we're doing is on the backs of the people who work the hardest and who make the least, and that's why so many of them — even when we were saying Trump is a threat to democracy — they were saying, yeah, but what about my gas prices, grocery prices, the cost of eggs?" he said. Times staff writer Sandra McDonald in Sacramento contributed to this report. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
