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:

• Stephen A. Williams, steve_a_williams@dot.ca.gov, 510-286-6195
• Jeff Lee, JeffLee3@sbcglobal.net, 510) 932-3520
• Nagarajah Rao, nagarajarao@sbcglobal.net, (510) 235-1184
• Virginia G. Finlay, v.finlay@sbcglobal.net, (510) 236-0494

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:  

• Notice of Availability (File Size: 81 KB)
• Volume 1: Draft EIR (File Size: 9 MB)
• Volume 2: Draft EIR Appendices (File Size: 16 MB)
• Volume 3: Responses to Comments (File Size: 16 MB)
• Volume 4: Technical Appendices (File Size: 4 MB)
• Volume 5: Attachments to Comment Letters (File Size: 25 MB)