In The News

The floods in Texas and recent tornadoes in Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri demonstrate that we NEED effective federal government capabilities to identify and warn about

impending natural disasters, and to help recovery after disasters (natural or not) occur. Yet, the Trump administration’s 2025 budget slashed FEMA’s funding by $646 million and eliminated over 2,000 staff positions, reducing its workforce by nearly a third. As Trump put it, “We want to wean off FEMA.” As Kristi Noem commented on the Texas floods: “I think what we’ve seen here is exactly what President Trump has envisioned for FEMA.” — Local News

What does this portend for a possible HF release at our, or any, HF refinery? Are we truly on our own in case of a local disaster?

In a little-known regulation established in 2017, refineries that use hydrofluoric acid (HF), an exceptionally dangerous chemical that can cause mass casualties in a few minutes, “are required to conduct a Hierarchy of Hazard Control Analysis (HCA) of its units on a repeating 5-year cycle. A Hazard Control Analysis requires the refinery to enumerate the hazards of each process, and, to assess whether higher order safety measures are feasible” [like using a vastly safer chemical], – a letter from Torrance Refinery-PBF to TRAA, 2018.

The first 5-year cycle ended October 2022 and somebody has been playing “hide the football” ever since. (See this Article from June 2023 for background).

Finally we received a highly-redacted copy of the HCA report. In fact every word of every answer was redacted. This is the sort of stonewalling they (the City of Torrance and the refinery) have done since the beginning! Perhaps they thought FOIA meant “Freedom of Blank Document Act” as absolutely no information was provided. These are pages 1 and 7, but they ALL look the same.

According to an informative article by Kristy Hutchings in the Daily Breeze, Valero will pay more than $270,000 in fines as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after the regulator found several chemical safety violations at the company’s Wilmington Refinery.

The violations are the result of a June 2022 inspection where the EPA found numerous violations, including underestimating how far dangerous concentrations of chemicals (like HF) could spread in a release. Several other serious issues were found, as listed in the article.

TRAA is mentioned and quoted in the article, which also discusses the dangers of HF and Valero’s handling of this dangerous chemical.

Since 1998, the Chemical Safety Board has played a key role in probing the causes of major chemical accidents.
By Maxine Joselow, Washington Post

An independent agency that investigates chemical disasters — including fatal fires and explosions at chemical plants and oil refineries nationwide — would shutter by October 2026 under little-noticed language in White House budget documents released Friday.

The proposal to eliminate the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is almost certain to face pushback from lawmakers in both parties. President Donald Trump repeatedly called for zeroing out the agency’s funding during his first term, only for Congress to maintain or increase its budget.

This time, however, Trump is trying to seize greater control of independent agencies, testing the limits of presidential power. The Supreme Court last month refused to immediately reinstate a pair of independent regulators fired by the Trump administration, saying the president may have the authority to oust them.

Link to read for free: https://wapo.st/4dHupNU

Join us for a gathering of more than a dozen of the South Bay’s most impactful social justice and pro-democracy organizations! This one-day event brings together dedicated groups working on the front lines of social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, workers’ rights, housing affordability, transit justice, and democratic engagement right here in our community.

Time: Sunday, June 8 1 – 5 pm PDT

Location: Pacific Unitarian Universalist Church
5621 Montemalaga Dr
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275

About this event

Discover meaningful ways to get involved as you connect directly with representatives from multiple organizations, including Democratic clubs, advocacy organizations, and activists making real change in the South Bay. Enjoy compelling speakers, live entertainment, and delicious food options.

Whether you’re a seasoned activist or simply curious about how to make a difference locally, this inclusive event welcomes everyone interested in building a more just, equitable, and vibrant South Bay.

Link to register: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblesouthbayla/event/782943/

From KQED in San Francisco:

Energy giant Valero on Wednesday announced plans to cease operations at its Benicia oil refinery, which has been consistently hindered by malfunctions and unintended toxic releases in recent years.

The Texas-based company said it had submitted notice of its intent to the California Energy Commission to “idle, restructure, or cease operations” at the refinery by the end of April 2026.

The move to shutter the sprawling North Bay refinery comes six months after regional and state air regulators fined the company a record $82 million for exceeding toxic emissions standards for more than a decade before regulators found out. And last month, the city imposed new safety regulations on the facility.

There were other reports, as noted in the Oil & Gas Journal, that Valero could also close its Wilmington refinery. While the notification to CEC presumably confirmed only the planned shuttering of the Benicia refinery, Valero stopped short of providing any assurances regarding a commitment to maintaining ongoing operations of its other in-state businesses, which include an 85,000-b/d Wilmington refinery near Los Angeles.

“Valero continues to evaluate strategic alternatives for its remaining operations in California,” the company said in its release.

From Investing.com: PBF Energy Inc. announced plans to resume operations at its Martinez, California refinery, which was shut down after a fire on February 1, 2025. The refinery, with a capacity of 157,000 barrels per day, will restart in two phases, with some units including the crude unit expected to begin operations early in the second quarter of 2025. The remaining units should be operational by the fourth quarter of 2025.

PBF Energy, which owns and operated the Torrance Refinery, also has safety issues at its plant in northern California. At least that one doesn’t use HF in its alkylation process. The article gives some financial information about the company and its prospects.

News reports are now coming in about our 10th Anniversary of the Explosion Event last weekend, and they highlight the amazing amount of work that TRAA had done during that time. Both articles here discuss the bill by Rep. Maxine Waters (HR 10441) and the petition by the NRDC, CBE and CAC to the EPA to demand that the HF be removed from refineries nationwide.

From the South Bay Daily Breeze: 10 years after Torrance Refinery explosion, pressure for a ban on MHF builds

As the South Bay community marks the 10th anniversary of an explosion at Torrance Refinery, advocates and elected officials are renewing their efforts to ban modified hydrofluoric acid at the facility — including via federal legislation.

Also reporting on our event last weekend, LegalPlanet asks Why Isn’t Hydrofluoric Acid Banned at Oil Refineries? In it, author Brennon Mendez reports This past Saturday, Congresswoman Maxine Waters announced that she would re-introduce and seek additional co-sponsors for her 2024 bill, HR 10441, banning the use of hydrofluoric acid (HF) at new oil refineries and requiring existing refineries to stop using HF within 5 years of the bill’s passage. Rep. Waters (CA-43) made that announcement to an adoring crowd of environmental justice advocates from the South Bay, gathered by the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the February 2015 explosion that nearly released tons of deadly HF into neighboring communities, which would’ve caused mass casualties.

Also see this report from KTLA 5 News about our event.

TRAA has released the following Press Release in conjunction with the 10th Anniversary Event today.