After years of organizing up and down the rail routes across California, last October we won a critical victory against Phillips 66's dangerous oil-train proposal at the San Luis Obispo Planning Commission. But the fight is not over!
Phillips 66 has appealed the Planning Commission’s denial to the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors need to hear loud and clear that toxic, dangerous oil trains have no place in our communities, near our homes, parks, schools, environmentally sensitive habitat, and precious water resources. Please join us!
WHEN: Monday, March 13th, 9 am
Hearings will continue every day that week from 9 am to 5 pm as needed.
WHERE: San Luis Obispo County Government Building
1055 Monterey Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93408
At noon on March 13, we will hold a rally outside the hearings to demonstrate that San Luis Obispo County and supporting communities are ready to move beyond dirty energy and look to a cleaner, healthier, safer future.
About the project
Phillips 66 wants to build an oil-train terminal at its refinery in Santa Maria. It would allow the oil giant to import tar sands crude from Canada in mile-long trains, each laden with over two million gallons of dirty crude. The trains would travel through hundreds of communities (including many in the Bay Area) before arriving at the refinery on California's Central Coast.
After being partially refined in Santa Maria, tar sands products would be sent back north to Contra Costa County's Rodeo refinery through a 200-mile pipeline.
Planning Commission hearings on this proposal last February were attended by record-breaking crowds who were overwhelmingly opposed to the oil-train terminal. People came not just from San Luis Obispo County, but also from farther afield: Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno, Santa Barbara, and many other towns and cities that would be put at risk by oil trains rolling through their communities.
Oil-train derailments and explosions have skyrocketed in recent years. The most catastrophic accident occured in Lac-Megantic, Canada in July 2013, when an oil-train derailment caused a fiery explosion that killed 47 people and obliterated several city blocks.
Read more about this campaign here.
Photo: Hundreds gathered for a rally on the first day of the February 2016 Planning Commission hearing. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Tsimoyianis.