People Before Profit blog

California inspectors afraid to go after marijuana-growing polluters

Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:28:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - With parts of Northern California's scenic hillsides illegally gouged by bulldozers for marijuana farming, frustrated local officials asked the state for help to protect streams and rivers from harmful sediment and the chemicals used on the pot plants.

They hoped to charge growers under federal and state clean water regulations with tougher penalties than the infractions local officials could impose. But they were rebuffed.

It's too dangerous, the state agency in charge of protecting the region's water said in a letter to county supervisors.

"We simply cannot, in good conscience, put staff in harm's way," wrote Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board Executive Director Paula Creedon.

As in many rural counties in California, marijuana farms are becoming more and more plentiful. They proliferate in the high Sierra, where armed drug cartel operatives clear wilderness areas, divert creeks, and poison wildlife.

Other smaller gardens are planted by people operating as collectives by pooling dozens of permits under the state's medical marijuana laws, though many of those are actually traffickers attempting to skirt the law. State law allows a person with a medical permit to grow roughly a dozen plants.

Butte County Supervisor Chairman Bill Connelly - frustrated that even photos of illegally scraped and terraced hillsides in sensitive watersheds didn't convince the water quality board to act - accused the board of not applying the law equally.

"My concern is that legitimate business people get harassed (by the agency), but illegal people will not be harassed because they get a pass," he said. "They go after the timber industry and farmers."

Penalties can range from cease-and-desist citations to fines of $5,000 for each day of the violation to more than $1 million, said state water board spokeswoman Kathie Smith.

The issue of large-scale marijuana enforcement and the damage some pot farms cause is not new in a region known as the Emerald Triangle, for the marijuana that has been produced there for decades. Marijuana is the state's biggest cash crop with an estimated $14 billion in legal and illegal sales annually.

California wildlife wardens and hikers in the state's remote backcountry occasionally happen upon gunmen guarding multimillion-dollar pot farms. It's one of the reasons the California Department of Fish & Wildlife recently issued its wardens more powerful weapons.

Those growers, when caught, are charged criminally in federal courts. But at the local level, counties are concerned with growers taking advantage of laws legalizing the growing of marijuana for medical uses. Even the legal farmers must comply with environmental laws.

The state's nine regional water boards are quasi-independent agencies that set their own policies, though all are charged with enforcing the federal Clean Water Act and its California equivalent. The Central Valley board, which focuses on runoff from farming, construction and hundreds of dairies, does not have a policy for investigating violations associated with marijuana grows.

"This is outside of our expertise," said Andrew Altevogt, assistant executive officer of the agency. "It's not the kind of thing that we do."

Yet its sister agency, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, aggressively seeks out and prosecutes growers who flatten remote hilltops, dam streams to divert water and allow sediment and chemicals to reach waterways.

In 2007 that agency joined an environmental crimes task force made up of county district attorneys and code enforcement agents.

"I initiated this because I thought it was the best way to get action on the things I was seeing," said Storm Feiler, a water board scientist who is part of the task force. "We have taken an active role because we have so many grow sites over here, and since 2007 there has been an astronomical increase. It's a really big issue for us."

As as marijuana farms proliferate, the issue of keeping creeks, streams and rivers free of toxins has become more of an issue statewide.

In southern California, in particular, water quality is a critical issue. Where water is more scarce the urgency of maintaining a clean supply is paramount. Local officials have asked for meetings with Gov. Jerry Brown's staff to find ways of enforcing the Clean Water Act. They are not pleased with a situation in which regulatory bodies they depend upon are afraid to act.

Photo: Illegal marijuana growing areas are seen in the Feather Falls part of Butte County, Calif. Butte County Department of Public Works/AP

Alberta oil leak into week 10 - can it be stopped?

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 14:29:00 +0000

Nine weeks ago, oil near a tar sands extraction site in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, began to leak and ooze from the ground. It is currently wending its way through a nearby swampy forest, blackening vegetation and killing wildlife. It shows no signs of stopping. Even worse, scientists have no idea where it's coming from or what to do about it.

Twenty-six thousand barrels of watery oil have already been removed from the area, but the efforts seem to be fruitless given the fact that as of now, the gushing crude cannot be stopped, and the actual source of the leak is unknown. The leak began, however, after Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. began extracting oil from beneath the ground by injecting ultra-hot, high-pressure steam into it, which allows crude to be pumped to the surface. It's called "cyclic steam stimulation (CSS)" in the industry, but concerned environmentalists will undoubtedly think of fracking, another practice that tampers with the earth, in that case to extract natural gas.

CSS was introduced by Shell, the big oil corporation with a filthy legacy of criminal action and environmental destruction, and has only been in heavy use in recent years, particularly in California and Venezuela. Along with train explosions, drilling rig blowouts, and leaking pipelines, all of which have occurred this year, CSS is another operation that can be added to the list of bad ideas.

"Everybody is freaking out about this," said a scientist who had been to the spill site. "We don't understand what happened. Nobody really understands how to stop it from leaking, or if they do, they haven't put the measures into place."

Bob Curran, a spokesman for Alberta Energy Regulator, a government agency that oversees oil operation sites, said what experts do know is that the leak is basically the result of "cracks in the ground," with "bitumen emulsion seeping out of those cracks." But they have so far been unable to pin down those cracks. "The challenges are basically figuring out what happened and then how to stop it."

Nikki Booth, spokesperson from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resources Development, said, "We do know some animals [in the affected area] have already died, including waterfowl; beavers; tadpoles and frogs; and shrews."

Alberta Energy Regulator has since ordered Canadian Natural Resources to cease all operations until the leak is stopped.

The seemingly innumerable cases-in-point as to why oil and gas extraction are highly dangerous merely add fuel (so to speak) to the fire in terms of the Keystone XL project, which has infuriated environmental activists. President Obama said that that pipeline, which would transport crude from Alberta to the U.S., would be subjected to a study on whether it would increase greenhouse gas emissions, before being approved.

Chris Severson-Baker, managing director of clean energy advocacy group the Pembina Institute, remarked, "At this point, what can actually be done to prevent the leak from continuing to occur? I don't think there's anything. They don't even know whether this emulsion has impacted groundwater."

"This is a new kind of oil spill," agreed Greenpeace energy analyst Keith Stewart. "And there is no 'off' button. You can't cap it like a conventional oil well and you can't turn off a valve like on a pipeline." With CSS, he added, "you're pressuring the oil bed so hard that it's no wonder that it blows out. This means the oil will continue to leak until that pressure is relieved, which means the bitumen could be seeping from the ground for months."

Photo: Inhabitat.com/Wikicommons (CC)

EPA fines ExxonMobil subsidiary for fracking spill

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:31:00 +0000

The Environmental Protection Agency has fined XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, $100,000 for the 2010 spill of fracking wastewater into a river in Penn Township, Pennsylvania. It has also ordered the company to invest at least $20 million in an improved fracking wastewater management system, which would prevent future incidents.

The improvement would entail XTO properly disposing of wastewater and increasing safety measures to prevent accidents during fracking activities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, two states in which the company operates. Part of that includes XTO installing remote monitoring systems at production sites with alarms that would be triggered in the instance of a spill.

In a statement, the EPA said that the settlement, which was finalized on June 18, "holds XTO accountable for a previous violation of the Clean Water Act and requires operational changes and improved management practices to help ensure the safe and responsible handling of wastewater produced during natural gas exploration and production activities."

Cynthia Gyles, assistant administrator at the agency's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, added, "The operational improvement required by this settlement will help to protect precious surface and drinking water resources in Pennsylvania and West Virginia."

The incident for which XTO has been fined occurred on November 16, 2010, when the company released between 6,300 and 57,373 gallons of liquid fracking waste into a tributary of the Pennsylvania Susquehanna River. The pollutant remained in the water for two months afterward before cleanup efforts took place. The accident was attributed to an open valve on a nearby wastewater storage tank.

XTO is one of the top ten repeated violators of the Clean Water Act, with 179 violations. And although it was singled out by the EPA and reprimanded, citizens and activists want the other polluting companies to be held responsible as well. One of these is the Waste Treatment Corporation, which has been illegally accepting fracking wastewater from other companies and emptying it into Pennsylvania's Allegheny River, a main tributary of the Ohio River. It has been doing this since 2003, but now environmental organization Clean Water Action is suing them on the grounds that its dumping is a clear Clean Water Act violation.

This particular wastewater has traces of radioactive elements, making it even more of an environmental and health hazard.

And in May of this year, company Carrizo Oil & Gas was responsible for a spill of fracking fluid - 9,000 gallons to be precise - into running waters near a farm site in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania.

This and more examples abound throughout the state, which has been called a "hotbed for fracking." Though the reckless behavior and deregulation of oil and natural gas companies are the most obvious culprit, some environmentalists are also criticizing the EPA for an unwillingness or inability to initiate a crackdown on such polluters.

In 2011, the agency released a report in which it determined fracking was to blame for the poisoning of an aquifier beneath the town of Pavillion, Wyoming. The report was partially based on a preliminary study conducted by the EPA in which they collected toxic water samples from at least 42 homes in the area since 2008. Today, however, the EPA announced it would hand the entire study over to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Protection, whose research will be funded by none other than EnCana, the drilling company whose wells contaminated the town of Pavillion in the first place.

Environmentalists see this as a troubling sign that the agency is disengaging from many fracking issues, a move that is strangely at odds with the recent unveiling of President Obama's plan to tackle pollution and other matters related to environmental health and climate change.

Many point to other EPA moves as proof, including the agency's closing of an investigation into groundwater pollution in Dimock, Pennsylvania; the revision of a 2010 estimate determining that leaked natural gas was a large contributor to climate change (the EPA suggested that "better pollution control" by the fracking industry somehow made natural gas less of a factor); and failure to force a ban on diesel fuel in fracking.

Notably, a diesel fuel spill occurred on July 19 in Portsmouth Lake, Virginia, poisoning water and sickening birds.

The EPA has said that the string of decisions is unrelated, and cites pressure from the drilling industry - as well as fossil fuel-pushing Republicans on Capitol Hill - as being responsible for recent inefficiencies in terms of deducing the dangers of fracking fluid. That isn't difficult to understand, nor are the obvious attempts of drilling companies to control (and often, restrict) the flow of data from fracking studies.

Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, remarked, "We're seeing a pattern that is of great concern. They need to make sure that scientific investigations are thorough enough to ensure that the public is getting a full scientific explanation."

Photo: Pits of fracking wastewater in Hickory, Pennsylvania. Flickr (CC)

Hundreds of chimps to be moved from labs to sanctuary

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Unlike the European Union, which in 2010 banned having chimps put in science laboratories, the U.S. remains one of the only nations that still conducts invasive scientific experimentation on the animals. More than 900 are still used as little more than test subjects. But on June 26, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it would cut funding for the majority of these experiments, and retire at least 310 of the 360 federally-owned chimpanzees currently in labs, moving them to a sanctuary.

Experiments on chimps have been conducted in the U.S. for more than 90 years, despite consistent pressure on the government and corporations by animal rights/animal welfare groups. Indeed, corporations too are responsible for the abuse of chimps - ones that are not part of the 310 that will be saved. Last year, PETA purchased stock in one such corporation, called BIOQUAL, in order to urge it to phase out chimp experiments - and that is what the company has begun doing.

BIOQUAL is a medical research company that includes cancer virus studies and antibody research. What their home page fails to say is that they have, for years, injected chimpanzees with diseases and viruses in order to observe their reactions, and the effects on their bodies. While such testing will soon end at this company, it will continue elsewhere.

The NIH's victory, however, is an important one. Around the same time as this was announced, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposal to categorize all chimps in labs as being "endangered," which would prohibit their use in any further experiments; this would apply nationwide, and not leave corporations exempt. Such a rule would also mean that chimps could no longer be used in Hollywood films.

Whether it be a matter of science or film, the need for using chimps is rapidly waning, and with it, all excuses. Most movies now use CG (computer-generated) primates when needed (see Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and in a report on the scientific validity of such experiments, the Institute of Medicine determined that lab testing of chimps was no longer necessary. And while such testing will soon be eradicated at this company, it will continue elsewhere.

It is telling that out of all the chimps currently being "used for science" in the U.S., 80 percent of them are "warehoused" because the need to use them in experiments is not there. "Warehoused" is a rather soft way of saying "imprisoned," which is what the animals truly are: they are caged alone and deprived of freedom, whereupon they become depressed and often lose their sanity.

In New Jersey, Princeton University's Developmental Neuromechanics and Communication Lab is also guilty of using chimps, and as recently as April this year, a massive protest took place in Princeton.

One of the demonstrators, Irene Simmons, a U.S. Navy retiree and software programmer, said that after a whistleblower released images of the chimps being subjected to horrendous conditions in the laboratory, "I couldn't bare to drive through the area, sit outside, and enjoy myself, knowing that animals were being tortured." The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Simmons likened the animal testing to the atrocities committed by Nazis. "I see a lot of people walk by [our protests] with dogs, but they don't respond to us because they think chimpanzees are below dogs."

"Princeton should be ashamed," she concluded. "They're saying it's okay to experiment on animals because humans are the most important species. The same principles that set foot in the 1930s are persisting."

Photo: peta.org

Devastating Quebec train crash reaffirms dangers of oil

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:14:00 +0000

The Quebec town of Lac-Mégantec became a scene of fire and destruction when a freight train carrying crude oil exploded on June 6. The confirmed death toll so far is 13, with 37 still missing and feared dead. More than 30 buildings were destroyed. It is the latest of a seemingly endless barrage of oil-related disasters this year, and another tragic example of how risky oil transport (by train or pipeline) is.

Operated by the U.S.-based Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic Railway company (MMA), the train had oil in all but one of its 73 tanker cars. It was transporting the oil from North Dakota to a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick.

During one of the train's stops, firefighters were called just two hours before the explosion, because of a fire in one car caused by a leaking fuel pipe. They left after extinguishing it and confirming that all was safe. But things were anything but safe, when the train began moving on its own while waiting for a crew change, speeding up until it derailed and crashed.

The MMA says that, most likely, the train moved on its own while left unattended because it was tampered with and shut down; this disabled the compressor that powered the air brakes and enabled it to roll downhill of its own accord.

Patrick Lambert, chief of the fire department in Nantes, the town where the train fire occurred, said, "We shut down the engine before fighting the fire. Our protocol calls for us to shut down the engine because it's the only way to stop the fuel from circulating into the fire." From that point on, company chairman Ed Burkhardt said, "if the operating locomotive is shut down, there's nothing left to keep the brakes charged up, and the brake pressure will drop to the point where they finally can't be held in place any longer."

The engine could have been shut down, they said, by pulling an emergency lever on the outside, which would have been accessible to anyone.

Upon visiting the site, which he described as a "war zone," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the authorities would "conduct a very complete investigation and act on the recommendations."

Regardless of whether the explosion's origins lie in criminal activity or not, it follows a string of oil-related disasters this year, indicating how risky oil transport (by train or pipeline) is.

Brett VandenHeuvel, a critic of oil exportation and director of Columbia Riverkeeper, an organization devoted to protecting waterways, said, "We've seen over and over that derailments are not a matter of 'if,' but 'when.' We know a train derails, and when it is carrying hazardous cargo, it's a threat to our public safety, our economy, and our environment."

Though the loss of human life is obviously the most sobering aspect of this disaster, about 26,000 gallons of the spilled oil also poisoned the nearby Claudiére River. This forced local authorities in the adjacent town of Saint George's to install floating barriers to prevent contamination of their own water.

As with nearly every other oil incident this year, this incident will prompt oil corporations on both sides to tout one method or another of oil transport as "the safer way." Alex Pourbaix, president of Keystone XL company TransCanada, had on March 14 remarked, "If you move oil by rail ... you have a higher risk of having some sort of incident, leak, or spill. If you're actually concerned about the environment ... you very much want to see oil moving by pipeline." This he said mere days before the pipeline leak that blackened the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, demonstrating that neither way is better than the other, and that on safety and the environment, Big Oil is clearly not trustworthy.

Kate Collarulli of the Sierra Club dismissed the rail-vs.-pipeline arguments, noting, "To say that we have to choose between rail or pipelines is cynical and defeatist. Oil is a dangerous fuel no matter how it is transported."

Photo: Paul Chiasson/AP & The Canadian Press

Keystone XL pipeline means “death” for Native Americans

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 15:57:00 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - At a recent Native American conference here, a celebrated American Indian leader, Onondaga wisdomkeeper Oren Lyons, said, "If Obama approves the pipeline, this is the dealbreaker." He was referring of course to the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL). The KXL project, if approved, would stretch 1,179 miles to transport tar sands oil, the dirtiest in the industry, from Canada through the U.S. Northern Plains to refineries in Texas.

Now, just in the past few weeks, President Obama in a speech on climate change stated that the pipeline would not be approved if it resulted in more "carbon pollution." This statement is being interpreted in different ways. For those who oppose the pipeline Obama is setting the stage for rejection of Keystone; for those who favor the pipeline he is hinting at approval.

One thing is certain: If Obama follows the logic of his statements, the pipeline is "dead in the water." The pipeline, by scientific analysis, would result in massively more "carbon pollution," in fact 600 parts per million CO2. The maximum safe limit for the atmosphere is 350 parts per million. (Also, note this breaking news: On July 6, a Phillips 66 pipeline spilled an estimated 25,000 gallons of gasoline on the Montana Crow Indian Reservation.)

But, another thing is certain: Native Americans are prepared if Obama approves the heinous project. Native communities are preparing for massive civil disobedience, "direct action," to stop the pipeline from crossing the Northern Plains.

Indian people are in special training for a project called the Moccasins on the Ground Tour of Resistance from South Dakota to Oklahoma. Moccasins on the Ground has already begun nonviolent direct action training on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation at Eagle Butte, S.D.

Eagle Butte would be the first Lakota community to face the tar sands oil headed south in the KXL pipeline, if it is approved by Obama. Moccasins is holding training on Street Medic Training, Legal Rights Under Civil Disobedience, Strategic Media, Building Solidarity, Lakota Sacred Teachings on Water, Human Rights and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and many other subjects under the canopy of direct action.

Moccasins is taking the Tour of Resistance to all Native communities that request the training. Trainers include activists from a host of Indian organizations and also the National Lawyers Guild, Great Plains Tarsands Resistance, People's Media Project of Chicago, Christian Peacemaker Team, Deep Green Resistance and the Texas Blockade. Native organizers welcome all who want to join in this monumental struggle. (Article continues below video.)

Moccasins on the Ground (video by Lakota Law Project):

This has all the makings of a huge movement to challenge the ongoing corporate destruction of Mother Earth. If Obama approves the KXL project, Moccasins will organize robust, uncompromising direct actions to block the pipeline. A veritable united front is being organized by Indian people around this critical issue.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that the pipeline will elevate U.S. annual carbon pollution emissions to 27.6 million metric tons - the equivalent of adding 6 million cars to the roadways.

For Native people the KXL pipeline means death. The Keystone oil, extracted from tar sands, is "environmental racism," they say. We have only to look at what is happening in Canada to Native people exposed to this pipeline. The toxic burden has contaminated the water, and arsenic has been found in moose meat, a staple of the Native Canadian diet. It has also brought extremely elevated rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems. This is death!

In Alberta, Canada, extraction of tar sands oil has already been linked to a 30 percent elevated rate in rare cancers and rare auto-immune disorders. Again the pipeline means "death." It means genocide.

To emphasize the utter seriousness of this threat, in Rapid City, S.D., representatives of 11 Native American nations angrily stormed out of a May meeting with federal government officials in protest of the pipeline, calling it "environmental genocide." Tribal officials refused to meet with low level government representatives. Oglala Sioux President Bryan Brewer said, "We will only talk with President Obama."

Another Indian spokesperson recently said, comparing the Keystone project to the wars, diseases, and removals of prior centuries that wiped out millions of Native people, the pipeline is just "another form of genocide." Also, the pipeline would run through sacred sites and traditional burial grounds and would pollute the Oglala Aquifer that provides water to millions of citizens, including non-Indians.

Indian people are prepared to put their lives at risk by standing in front of the bulldozers. With Natives vowing to put their lives on the line, how will it look for Obama to find his hands awash with the blood of innocent Native Americans? As for the bulldozers, the battle cry is ramping up to: "They shall not pass."

But this is not just a fight for Native people, this is a fight for all people of the U.S. environmentalists, landowners and ranchers are joining with Indian nations in opposition to this abominable project. It is looming, thus far, to be the "battle of the century."

At a recent press conference, the tribes said, "Tar sands pipelines will not pass through our collective territories under any conditions or circumstances." This is a life-and-death struggle for Native Americans.

Photo: Moccasins on the Ground training session in March, 2013. Moccasins on the Ground/Tar Sands Blockade.

Labor and community battle Chevron over environment

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:17:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - 350BayArea.org, joined by local groups and unions, last week announced plans for a massive protest Aug. 3 at California's Chevron Richmond oil refinery.

The largest greenhouse gas polluter in the state, Chevron, along with the other four Bay Area refineries, is already refining tar sands oil from Canada, brought into the area by rail.

Chevron is among industry giants pressing for presidential approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project that would exponentially increase the flow of "dirty" tar sands oil into refineries, locally and throughout the nation.

The protest announcement came a day after President Obama's precedent-setting speech reframing the national debate on climate change, including measures he intends to take despite strong opposition from oil and coal industrial giants and their congressional "deniers" and apologists.

This summer's protest will take place three days ahead of the anniversary of the Richmond Chevron refinery explosion and fire last August that sent 15,000 workers and local residents to area hospitals.

In response to persistently lax company health and safety practices that led to last year's fire, and Chevron's stubborn disregard for the environment, 350BayArea.org and the Bay Area climate movement brought together 5,000 people on Feb. 17, in the biggest climate protest in Northern California history - second only to the Washington DC rally that drew 40,000 people.

Meanwhile, thanks to the persistent work of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), labor, environmental groups, progressive Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, several progressive City Council members, and others, Chevron has made modest concessions including upping its contributions to non-profits and West County Education, and taking steps to make it possible for Richmond residents to get more of the relatively good paying jobs at the refinery.

Mayor McLaughlin and the grassroots campaign led by RPA won the election in 2010 despite Chevron and casinos contributing heavily to the opposition's coffers.

Mayor McLaughlin, RPA and other progressives have put together a comprehensive set of demands requiring Chevron to improve safety and health procedures as well as strengthening the unions' and community's say on Chevron conduct in the plant and towards the community.

The public plan would require Chevron to increase investment in emissions monitoring and control equipment, advanced refining processes and solar energy with a goal of bringing down total emissions by 40 percent by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, earlier this year a coalition of labor, community and environmental groups came together in Richmond under the banner of the Collaborative on Refinery Safety and Community Health.

It includes United Steelworkers Local 5 representing about 1,500 Bay Area refinery workers, the national labor-environmental coalition BlueGreen Alliance, and the Labor Occupational Health Program at the University of California Berkeley. Also participating are one national and two Bay Area-based environmental groups: the Natural Resources Defense Council, Communities for a Better Environment and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

The collaborative has drawn the attention of the Chemical Safety Board, Cal/OSHA, and Governor Jerry Brown, who put together a state-level refinery safety task force last year following the August fire. The task force met with collaborative representatives several times to discuss "regulatory and statutory changes" regarding government oversight of the refinery industry.

The August fire in Richmond "provided some opportunities for our immediate focus," Greg Karras, senior scientist at Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), told Richmond Confidential earlier this year.

"But its scope is regional," Karras added. "We're talking about all of the Bay Area refineries directly - and indirectly, about all refineries in the country."

The union and local community initiatives could well serve as an example adaptable to the particular conditions and needs of local communities in other parts of the country.

This could enhance grassroots support for national environmental initiatives like those of the president and other government officials and entities, and for the labor-community-environmental alliances vital to meaningful advances.

Of energy industry-inspired claims that environmental concerns cost jobs, CBE organizer Andres Soto said, "That's not the case. Part of the point of this collaborative is to destroy that myth."

Charlotte Brody, national associate director of the BlueGreen Alliance, explained that stricter safety and maintenance regulations for European refineries are far more effective in terms of accidents and fires.

In some cases, the European refineries are owned by the same companies that operate unsafely in the U.S., Brody said. "And they're not taking huge losses for doing that."

"This is a known universe," Brody added. "We know how to make refineries safer."

Movements with a local focus like in Richmond - when added to others elsewhere in the country along with national and state level efforts - could potentially contribute to defeating Republican climate change deniers and energy company apologists in swing races in the 2014 and 2016 elections.

They could also potentially influence Democratic office holders beholden to energy companies in regions dominated by energy industry giants and, in some cases, possibly even lead to their replacement by more environmental- and people-friendly Democrats.

Photo: The Richmond Chevron refinery. Eric Risberg/AP