Clean air
West County Times
- Posted 8/25/09 - http://www.contracostatimes.com/letters/ci_13194156?nclick_check=1
I appreciated the Aug. 16 Times article, "Protesters march on
Chevron refinery in Richmond." Richmond has many forms of violence,
and all violence must be rejected, including environmental violence.
As peaceful individuals
marched against the potential expansion of pollution from the
refinery, they chanted, "Clean air, healthy
jobs." They, and their expressed sentiment, represent the strong
desire of the majority of Richmond residents, organized labor members
and community groups.
Most Richmond residents don't have the money Chevron has to
spend on full-page color ads. Instead, we paint signs and take
them to the streets, because we know the following:
- Chevron still refuses to put in writing
that it will not bring dirtier, more polluting crude oil to
Richmond (See the CC Times Editorial "The ball is in Chevron's
court" 08/20/09 below).
- Last year, the incomplete and insufficient
plan was rubber-stamped by Chevron supporters on the City Council
(Maria Viramontes, Ludmyrna Lopez, Nat Bates), after "They
bypassed their city staff and negotiated details of the community
agreement directly with the company"
(Times editorial, Aug. 21, 2008).
- Chevron was stopped by a decent judge, who sent Chevron back
to fix the flawed EIR.
- Chevron is the only party rejecting California Attorney General
Jerry Brown's offer of mediation.
- Chevron pollutes too much already!
Jovanka Beckles
Richmond
Editorial: The ball is in Chevron's court
MediaNews editorial
Posted: 08/20/2009 12:01:00 AM PDT -
http://www.contracostatimes.com:80/opinion/ci_13161195?nclick_check=1
THE IMPASSE between Chevron and environmentalists over renovations
at the Richmond refinery is indeed puzzling.
Environmental groups won a lawsuit challenging the oil company's
environmental impact report regarding the refinery's ability and
intent to process heavy crude oil, which would increase air pollution,
after extensive retrofit work is completed.
Chevron says the changes to the refinery will result in less pollution
and that it has no plans to refine heavy crude oil.
If that is the case, why won't Chevron agree to a cap that would
guarantee that the refinery would not start processing the heavy,
dirtier crude?
Chevron's answer is unsatisfactory. Spokesman Brent Tippen said
the refinery's work is already heavily regulated. That is true
but beside the point. Tippen added that the refinery lacks the
equipment to refine heavier crude and permits already prevent Chevron
from doing so. The question remains: Why not agree to a crude cap?
Tippen responded that a crude cap barring the processing of heavy
oil would not add to environmental protection. A divided City Council
sided with Chevron and approved the renovation project with a cap
on the type of oil running through a solvent deasphalting unit.
However, environmentalists were not satisfied because there was
no cap on a second stream of crude that enters the refinery and
bypasses the solvent deasphalting unit. Superior Court Judge Barbara
Zuniga agreed that Chevron's EIR was vague and inconsistent on
whether heavier crude would be processed.
The deadlock over the refinery project is more than an esoteric
debate over which type of crude is going to be processed. It has
resulted in the stoppage of a major construction project that has
put 1,000 people out of work in the middle of a recession.
If Chevron refuses to accept some kind of cap on heavy crude,
perhaps one that would be reviewed at a later date, one has to
wonder just what Chevron's true intentions are.
The ball is in the oil company's court. It's past time for some
clear answers that could lead to a quick settlement to a dispute
that is costly to 1,000 workers, the city of Richmond and to Chevron
itself.
Memorial Day: Origin of Holiday
West
County Times - Posted: 5/28/09
by Jovanka Beckles
Memorial Day was created to honor the Union soldiers of the American
Civil War.
It was originally called Decoration Day, and was the creation
of freed blacks, who on May 30, 1868, returned to the Charleston
(S.C.) Union Graveyard and decorated the individual graves of Union
soldiers with flowers.
A few years earlier, at the end of the war, these freed slaves
had opened the mass graves of the Confederate prison and transferred
the dead Union soldiers to honorable single graves.
In 1868, a parade of thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers
from the area was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic. Memorial
Day was to honor those who fought and suffered in a war that ended
slavery.
This celebration emerged from the deep personal experience of
a people who honored an indisputable just cause at the center of
the Civil War: the end of slavery.
The true way of honoring the fallen is to prevent further death.
Let's work to end all wars.
Let's pray for justice, peace and understanding.
Let's reflect on what all those lives lost could have been if
war had been prevented.
Jovanka Beckles
Richmond
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