While we congratulate President
Obama for rejecting latest Keystone XL pipeline proposal, the issue
is far from dead. Even now Big Oil and their supporters in Congress are
plotting new strategies to bring more toxic tar sands oil to be refined in our
country.
And President Obama's statement did
not promise to stop a new Keystone pipeline proposal should it resurface.
In fact he stated he supported the southern leg of the pipeline, which
could allow more tar sands to flow into Gulf Coast refineries or even be
shipped off to China.
Oil
refineries produce toxic pollution and climate changing emissions.
While we all recognize that we need to invest in clean energy,
refineries across the US are going the opposite way by expanding their
polluting facilities, with a number of them planning to use one of the
dirtiest crude oils available – tar sands from Canada.
Fenceline
communities across the U.S. want the promise of clean, sustainable
energy to reach them. Tar sands crude is a step in the wrong direction.
West
Oakland, California is an area where there has been increasing
residential redevelopment in an industrial urban corridor. This means
schools, playgrounds and home in the shadows of polluting facilities.
From
the facilities GCM has monitored, the most likely impacts are kidney
disease, neurological damage, cancer and respiratory problems like
asthma. There may be dioxin (a cancer causing and reproductive toxin)
and lead coming from one facility.
We are advocating that Custom
Alloy Scrap Sales and other polluting recyclers be moved to the vacant
Oakland Army Base, which will keep the toxins further away from the
communities. In fact, Custom Alloy Scrap Sales, has publicly said it is
willing to move there.
Hydrogen
Sulfide is a deadly poison gas released by oil refineries and other
industrial facilities. Children, because of their developing bodies, are
especially susceptible to this pollution and can face permanent nervous
system damage.
Currently the US EPA is
considering compelling polluters to publicly disclose how much Hydrogen
Sulfide they release into communities.
Send an email today
supporting the EPA's effort to protect children by finally listing
Hydrogen Sulfide on the Toxics Release Inventory, a public right to know
database on pollution.
Currently,
Chevron is ramrodding a $1 billion project to expand its
Richmond refinery so that it can refine dirtier crude oil, like
Canadian tar sands, as higher quality crudes become scarcer. Nationwide,
we are seeing proposals for new oil refineries and expansions of
existing ones to refine dirty crudes like tar sands.
Using heavier, dirtier crude oil could increase pollution in Richmond
where childhood asthma hospitalizations are almost twice the rate in
the rest of the county. Tar sands oil could result in double or triple
the climate change emissions of conventional crude oil.
Hydrogen
Sulfide (H2S), an air pollutant released by oil refineries and other
industrial factories, is lethal at high concentrations. Recent medical
research has found that, at chronic, low levels, H2S popularly called
"poison gas," "rotten egg" or "sour gas" can cause genetic damage, plus
serious and permanent central nervous system damage.
Join a coalition of community groups and
environmental organizations calling on the US EPA to formally list
Hydrogen Sulfide as a Hazardous Air Pollutant.
While we congratulate President
Obama for rejecting latest Keystone XL pipeline proposal, the issue
is far from dead. Even now Big Oil and their supporters in Congress are
plotting new strategies to bring more toxic tar sands oil to be refined in our
country.
Oil
refineries produce toxic pollution and climate changing emissions.
While we all recognize that we need to invest in clean energy,
refineries across the US are going the opposite way by expanding their
polluting facilities, with a number of them planning to use one of the
dirtiest crude oils available – tar sands from Canada.
West
Oakland, California is an area where there has been increasing
residential redevelopment in an industrial urban corridor. This means
schools, playgrounds and home in the shadows of polluting facilities.
Hydrogen
Sulfide is a deadly poison gas released by oil refineries and other
industrial facilities. Children, because of their developing bodies, are
especially susceptible to this pollution and can face permanent nervous
system damage.
Currently,
Chevron is ramrodding a $1 billion project to expand its
Richmond refinery so that it can refine dirtier crude oil, like
Canadian tar sands, as higher quality crudes become scarcer. Nationwide,
we are seeing proposals for new oil refineries and expansions of
existing ones to refine dirty crudes like tar sands.
