Martinez Environmental Group

Posted on March 4, 2015  by Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Crude oil, Politics/Policy, Rail

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration should force oil companies to strip volatile gases from the crude they transport across the nation’s rail lines to lower the risk of a fiery disaster, Sen. Charles Schumer insisted Wednesday.

Coming requirements for more resilient tank cars, along with better braking systems for trains heaving hazardous material and more information for first responders are not enough to make the activity safer, Schumer said.

“We need all of those safety measures, but of course none of them is a panacea,” Schumer said in a conference call with reporters. “Because of the type of accident that this could be — God forbid — we need to do everything we can; we have to take an all-of-the-above approach to safeguarding the transport of hazardous chemicals.”

In a letter to two cabinet secretaries, Schumer asked the departments of energy and transportation to work together on a plan that would require oil companies to stabilize crude before shipping it by rail — similar to standards for crude loaded into pipelines and possibly going beyond new North Dakota mandates.

The stabilization process involves heating crude to remove flammable natural gas liquids and other volatile light ends. Schumer cast it as getting more tinder out of the tinder box.

“Any time you are transporting volatile chemicals, there is a risk of explosion,” Schumer said. “Things like safer tank cars, better braking and lower speeds all help, but when it comes to the crude one of the most powerful things we could do . . . would be setting a good standard for the stability of what’s actually inside the tank cars.”

North Dakota regulators last year imposed a requirement aimed at lowering the volatility of oil — with the goal of effectively capping its vapor pressure at 13.7 pounds per square inch.

That’s a higher threshold than most of the oil that was sampled by Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulators last year. It also exceeds the vapor pressure of the oil that exploded in Lac-Megantic Quebec two years ago.

Schumer questioned whether the North Dakota regulation goes far enough.

“We need the federal government to take a tough look,” Schumer said. “Given the oil industry’s influence in North Dakota, their standard may not be good enough. We’re going to ask (the feds) what is.”

Oil industry representatives have disputed the characterization that Bakken crude is more explosive than other crudes.

Read more: North Dakota crude no more dangerous, report finds

“Acting on assumptions rather than science is not the way to enhance safety,” said Brian Straessle, a spokesman with the American Petroleum Institute. “Multiple scientific studies by government and industry have shown Bakken crude does not present greater than normal transportation risks for flammable liquids.”

A white paper from the Federal Railroad Association also warned that vapor pressure may not be a meaningful indicator of the risk of explosion. “Using vapor pressure as a metric to identify potential hazards may not prove effective when considering real-world accident conditions involving tank cars loaded with flammable liquids,” the FRA paper said.

Volatility is not expected to be part of coming Transportation Department rules for heaving crude by rail, which focus on boosting the resiliency of the tank cars used to ship flammable liquids. The proposal unveiled last July would phase out old DOT-111 tank cars in favor of newer models built to enhanced standards, including 9/16-inch thick steel, electronically controlled pneumatic brakes and rollover protection.

The agency also proposed speed limits on high-hazard flammable trains that carry 20 or more tank carloads of flammable liquids, including crude and ethanol.

Read more: Transportation Department unveils proposed oil train rules

Even in the absence of a final rule — possible in May — oil shippers and railroads have made voluntary changes to tank cars produced since 2011.

Recent derailments involving oil trains have put a spotlight on the risks of the United States’ climbing crude-by-rail transport. Most recently, in February, oil tank cars built to the newer post-2011 industry standard left the tracks in West Virginia, resulting in an explosion that sent fireballs into the sky and destroyed one home.

Legislation approved by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday aims to boost the training of emergency personnel that could respond to rail accidents involving hazardous materials. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., would establish a panel with technical experts and representatives from federal agencies and the private sector to review training and resources for first responders to railroad hazmat incidents.

Read Schumer’s full letter here.

By Tom Lochner    Contra Costa Times   03/04/2015

MARTINEZ — An environmental group has sued Contra Costa County over its approval of a propane and butane recovery project at a Rodeo refinery, contending it is a piece of a grander plan to process heavy, dirty tar sands crude that would come to California by rail.

The Phillips 66 Co., which owns the Rodeo refinery and another refinery in Santa Maria in San Luis Obispo County, is a co-defendant in the suit, filed Wednesday in Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez by Communities for a Better Environment. The two refineries together constitute the two-part San Francisco Refinery, according to the Phillips 66 website.

“Phillips 66 cannot meet its propane recovery objective without switching to a lower quality feedstock, like tar sands, and without other Phillips 66 projects to assist in that overall switch,” CBE attorney Roger Lin said in a news release.

CBE has said that the refinery, with the acquiescence of authorities, seeks to “piecemeal” what the environmental group describes as “a tar sands refining project that could worsen pollution, climate, and refinery and rail explosion hazards.” The EIR, CBE contends, “hid the project from the public and failed to mitigate its significant environmental impacts.”

A rail spur project at the Santa Maria refinery, designed to receive about five trains a week, each with about 80 tank cars of crude oil, is under review by San Luis Obispo County.

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The trains could arrive at Santa Maria from the south, via the Los Angeles basin, or the north, possibly along the shores of San Pablo and San Francisco bays and through San Jose.

Crude oil is partially refined at the Santa Maria refinery, then sent on to Rodeo via a 200-mile pipeline.

Phillips 66 spokesman Paul Adler said Wednesday the company would be issuing a statement in response to the filing. Officials at County Counsel Sharon Anderson’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Along with the Rodeo project’s EIR, the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 3 rejected two appeals of a November 2013 county Planning Commission-approved use permit for the project. The appellants were CBE and the law firm of Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger on behalf of the Rodeo Citizens Association. The board vote was 4-1, with Supervisor John Gioia voting no.

The Rodeo project calls for installation of new equipment to recover and sell propane and butane instead of burning it as fuel at the refinery or flaring off excesses.

Phillips 66 has said the project would reduce emissions of several pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, partly by using cleaner-burning natural gas as refinery fuel and because sulfur would be extracted to prepare the propane and butane for sale.

The new equipment would include a hydrotreater, six storage vessels and two new rail spurs related to shipping the recovered propane and butane out of the refinery in tank cars.

By Sander L. van der Linden , Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Geoffrey D. Feinberg, Edward W. Maibach
Published: February 25, 2015DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118489

There is currently widespread public misunderstanding about the degree of scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, both in the US as well as internationally. Moreover, previous research has identified important associations between public perceptions of the scientific consensus, belief in climate change and support for climate policy. This paper extends this line of research by advancing and providing experimental evidence for a “gateway belief model” (GBM). Using national data (N = 1104) from a consensus-message experiment, we find that increasing public perceptions of the scientific consensus is significantly and causally associated with an increase in the belief that climate change is happening, human-caused and a worrisome threat. In turn, changes in these key beliefs are predictive of increased support for public action. In short, we find that perceived scientific agreement is an important gateway belief, ultimately influencing public responses to climate change.

Read the document here.

http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/Article/3432511/Latest-News/Shell-unveils-plan-to-replace-USW-refining-workers.html

Shell will have trained and deployed enough “relief workers” by mid-summer to keep the 327,000-bpd Deer Park refinery in Texas running at full operations. 

By LYNN DOAN and ZAIN SHAUK    03.03.2015    Bloomberg

Two days before contract negotiations are scheduled to resume between Royal Dutch Shell and the United Steelworkers’ oil union, the company announced plans to run its second-largest US refinery without union labor.

Shell will have trained and deployed enough “relief workers” by mid-summer to keep the 327,000-bpd Deer Park refinery in Texas running at full operations, The Hague, Netherlands-based company said late Monday on its website. USW members went on strike at the complex on Feb. 1 after their contract expired and talks broke down.

The announcement comes amid a national strike that’s now widened to 12 refineries accounting for almost 20% of the capacity in the US. Shell is leading the negotiations with the 30,000-strong United Steelworkers on behalf of companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron.

Shell said on its website late Monday that the company had been preparing staff to replace union workers since the walkout began. After putting in place non-union Shell employees to run operations at the plant, “we turned our focus to bringing in and training additional staff,” the company said.

The United Steelworkers, which is trying to limit the number of contractors at plants, said in a text message on Friday that Shell will need to bargain a fair and safe contract or see the strike expand.

Ray Fisher, a spokesman for Shell, said in a statement on Friday that the company and the union will “continue efforts to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.”

Three-Month Stoppage

The walkout of US oil workers is the first national action since 1980, when a stoppage lasted three months. In all, the USW represents workers at sites that together account for 64% of US fuel output.

The USW last expanded the strike on Feb. 20 to include Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, the nation’s largest, along with its plants in Convent and Norco, Louisiana. Motiva is a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Workers were already on strike at: Shell’s Deer Park complex in Texas; Tesoro’s plants in Martinez and Carson, California, and Anacortes, Washington; Marathon Petroleum’s Catlettsburg complex in Kentucky and Galveston Bay site in Texas; LyondellBasell’s Houston plant; and BP’s Whiting, Indiana, and Toledo, Ohio, refineries.

The union, which has rejected seven contract offers from Shell, says USW members should handle daily maintenance at plants. Shell has said the union’s “unreasonable” demands would take away hiring flexibility.

About 6,550 people have joined the strike, which also includes a Marathon cogeneration plant in Texas and two Shell chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana, USW statements show.

March 3 Letters to the editor
Contra Costa Times
Posted:   03/02/2015

Recently, kudos were given for those responsible for cleaning the Shell oil spill of two barrels of crude oil into the Carquinez Strait along Martinez’s shores. Assurance was given of no impact to the shoreline or to wildlife along the wetlands.

How about the polluting and spills for the last 100 years at Contra Costa County’s Tesoro, Shell and Phillips 66 refineries? Are we assured of no pollution to the shoreline and subsurface soils on these properties? Richmond residents should ask themselves the same questions regarding the Chevron refinery.

Images of fossil-fuel companies abandoning drilling locations in the Americas and Third-World countries exhibit superfund sites of irreclaimable infrastructure and subsurface contamination those countries are struggling to clean up.

Tesoro, Shell and Phillips 66 reside on Contra Costa County soils; within our children’s lifetime, taxpayers will have to pay for clean up of these sites. Has the Board of Supervisors looked into what efforts these refineries have implemented for financing of eventual shutdown, clean-up and remediation so residents aren’t stuck with a bill that will bankrupt the county?

Jim Neu

Neu is a member of Martinez Environmental Group.

February 21, 2015
OPINION BY THE MESA REFINERY WATCH GROUP

Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo City Council officially joined a rapidly expanding list of towns, cities and counties. They’re the ones specifically opposed to Phillips 66 imposing its self-proclaimed “crude-by-rail strategy” on California and San Luis Obispo County.

After a unanimous vote, the Council sent a two-page letter (attached) to the County’s Planning Commission outlining the obvious dangers of allowing a rail terminal to be built and having hundreds of tar sands crude oil trains menacing its citizens each year.

It stated the case clearly and forcefully:

“Trains delivering crude would go right through the heart of our city. An accident would have catastrophic effects if it occurred in any populated or habitat area. Our fire fighters and emergency response or hazmat teams are not funded nor equipped to deal with the magnitude of a rail disaster.

“The council urges you to deny the application of the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery in Nipomo. Reject this project and protect the health, safety and welfare of San Luis Obispo County residents.”

The list of major municipalities gets longer each week. Why? Because they recognize the outcomes of an invasion of Phillips’ oil trains.

Here’s the list of those north and south that have already officially communicated their opposition:

• Alameda County
• Berkeley
• Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board
• Camarillo
• Davis
• Moorpark
• Oakland
• Oxnard
• Richmond
• Simi Valley
• San Jose
• San Leandro Unified School District
• San Luis Obispo City
• Ventura County
• Ventura Unified School District

Therefore — this is not a “NIMBY” issue. Phillips’ plan endangers scores of cities and towns, and millions of citizens as their trains carry tar sands all the way from Canada to SLO County.

The decision to allow or disallow the rail terminal in Nipomo, and thus the oil trains, will be landmark in nature. The SLO County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors has the power to stand up to big oil and say, “keep your trains out.,” or they can open the floodgates. The nation is watching.

This story is happening now. The decision will be made soon.

The Mesa Refinery Watch Group is a group of people opposed to the Nipomo rail spur project.

The union, which has rejected seven contract offers, says USW members should handle daily maintenance at plants. Shell has said the union’s “unreasonable” demands would take away hiring flexibility.

By LYNN DOAN and LUCIA KASSAI    03.02.2015   Bloomberg

The United Steelworkers union, representing 30,000 oil workers in contract talks, will resume negotiations this week with Royal Dutch Shell, prolonging the biggest refinery strike in 35 years.

Shell, negotiating on behalf of employers including ExxonMobil and Chevron, and the USW have agreed to meet on March 4, statements from both sides show. The union, which is trying to limit the number of contractors at plants, said in a text message on Friday that Shell will need to bargain a fair and safe contract “or see strike expand.”

The meeting will be the first official one since Feb. 20, when talks between the two sides broke down and the union spread its strike to include the nation’s largest refinery. The stalled negotiations have drawn out a national walkout that began Feb. 1 at seven refineries and has since widened to include 12. Together, they account for almost 20% of the country’s refining capacity.

Ray Fisher, a spokesman for The Hague, Netherlands-based Shell, said in a statement on Friday that the company and the union will “continue efforts to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.” USW International President Leo Gerard said on Tuesday that a further expansion of the strike will depend on this next round of negotiations.

The walkout of US oil workers is the first national one since 1980, when a stoppage lasted three months. In all, the USW represents workers at sites that together account for 64% of US fuel output.

Port Arthur

Late on Feb. 20, the USW called on workers at Motiva Enterprises’ refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the nation’s largest, to join the strike. It also ordered members at the company’s refineries in Convent and Norco, Louisiana, to walk out. Motiva is a joint venture venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco.

Workers were already on strike at Tesoro’s plants in Martinez and Carson, California, and Anacortes, Washington; Marathon Petroleum’s Catlettsburg complex in Kentucky and Galveston Bay site in Texas; Shell’s Deer Park complex in Texas; LyondellBasell’s Houston plant; and BP’s Whiting, Indiana, and Toledo, Ohio, refineries.

The union, which has rejected seven contract offers from Shell, says USW members should handle daily maintenance at plants. Shell has said the union’s “unreasonable” demands would take away hiring flexibility.

About 6,550 people have joined the strike, which also includes a Marathon cogeneration plant in Texas and two Shell chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana, USW statements show.

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