By Andrew Christie, Chapter Director
The front page of the July 12 Tribune made it clear: the California Teachers Association, California Nurses Association, and more than two dozen California cities, counties and school districts have gone on record opposing the Phillips 66 oil-by-rail project.
Since then, the National Education Association, “on behalf of NEA’s 3 million members and the students they serve,” has also joined in opposition for the sake of the 29 schools in the county located within a mile of the project’s potential blast zone.
But the town of Oceano and the cities of Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles and Atascadero have remained silent.
They are all on or near the Union Pacific main line and all at risk from the rail shipment of toxic, explosive tar sands crude oil, but have not been able to bring themselves to oppose the project or even agendize a vote on it.
It would be hard to think of a more fundamental dereliction of the basic duty of elected officials to protect their citizens -- a failure emphasized by the excuses offered up to the Tribune’s reporter by city officials. (Does Pismo Beach Mayor Shelly Higginbotham really believe that she can say nothing on this issue -- which in all likelihood will be heard on appeal at the Board of Supervisors in the next five months -- because she might be elected to the board in November 2016 and therefore might be voting on this permit?)
The idea that appears to have done the most to paralyze these city councils is the notion that they have to wait for the release of the project’s Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Until then, per this excuse, they don’t have all the facts they need to take a position on the project.
Unsurprisingly, this suggested course of action originates with supporters of Phillips 66 in the oil company’s primary civic stronghold, the Arroyo Grande & Grover Beach Chamber of Commerce.
It’s not true for several reasons. First, any major changes between the draft and final project review would result in a do-over (as, in fact, occurred when Phillips was forced to issue a Revised EIR). The basic nature of a project does not change between a draft and final EIR.
Second, the Phillips 66 project is an environmental and public health disaster by design. Just one example: Last month, the CBE/ForestEthics report “Crude Injustice on the Rails” reported the industry calculation that one percent of the volume of oil trains is lost to off-gassing through pressure relief valves. That means 20,000 gallons of virulently carcinogenic chemicals from the dirtiest oil on the planet and its toxic diluent released into the air as those trains roll past homes, schools and workplaces -- 20,000 gallons per train, five times a week -- on their way to the Nipomo Mesa. Add to that the particulate matter that will be emitted by the 15 diesel locomotives necessary to move ten million gallons of oil per week, bringing increases in asthma attacks, cardiopulmonary-related deaths, heart attacks and cancer.
There can be no fix for that in any EIR. It’s not a worst-case scenario on a scale of probability; it’s the project.
Finally, it’s highly unlikely that any city council could agendize, draft and deliberate on a letter of opposition in the time interval between the release of the final environmental review and the date of the County Planning Commission hearing, which could be as brief as two weeks. Phillips 66 knows that.
Virtually all the cities in California that would be impacted by this project have informed themselves, grasped the urgency of the problem, and told SLO County that they don’t wish to become an industrial sacrifice zone for the sake of an oil company’s profit margin…except Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles and Atascadero; all sticking out like silent sore thumbs, increasingly conspicuous by their absence from that list.
As two dozen other California cities, counties and school districts have already done, they need to stand up.
If you live in one of those cities and would like to help them do so, go to sc.org/Phillips66.
If you would also like to tell them in person and you live in South County, contact charles@varni.org at 459-6698 to join a delegation to the following meetings:
Grover Beach, July 20, 6:30 pm;
Pismo Beach, July 21, 5:30 pm,
Oceano CSD, July 22, 6:30 pm,
Arroyo Grande, July 28 6 p.m.