Can Pismo, Grover and A.G. hear you now on the Phillips 66 oil-by-rail project?
By Andrew Christie, Chapter Director
Something is happening under the dome that has enclosed all local governments in the vicinity of the Santa Maria Refinery and the Phillips 66 oil-by-rail project. These are the cities at the center of the company’s civic sphere of influence.
Pismo Beach will finally hear a presentation on the project from the Mesa Refinery Watch Group on September 1. Originally scheduled for the council’s May 5 meeting as half of a pro & con presentation in tandem with Phillips 66 officials, it was canceled when Phillips hit upon the strategy of not showing up, thereby getting the item pulled from the agenda. What better way to reduce the bad press your project is getting than to remove it from public discussion? One may reasonably conclude that Phillips stuck to this strategy over the intervening three months, declined to reschedule, and the City Council finally decided to proceed without them.
That meeting will be followed by an agendized discussion item on the Phillips 66 project at the Grover Beach City Council on September 21, and at the Arroyo Grande City Council the following evening.
Thanks to the steady application of public pressure, three city councils have concluded that they at least need to look like they’re listening to their citizens. We invite any A.G., Grover and Pismo residents who have not yet sent their city councilmembers this message to do so now. If you already have, feel free to send it again.
Because while it’s a safe bet that one or two of these meetings were scheduled out of a desire to say “Now that we’ve heard you, please go away,” it’s an equally safe bet that one or two have a different impetus behind them, that some councilmembers have been paying at least enough attention to notice that it is starting to look odd that 30 cities, counties and school districts on the Union Pacific main line throughout the state have grasped the existential threat of this project to the health and safety of their citizens, their local air quality, watersheds and wildlife habitat; and those thirty cities, counties and school districts are beseeching the SLO County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to deny this project and spare them from disaster… but only one city inside SLO County itself has gone on the record opposing this project.
Yes, that looks odd. With word circulating far and wide about just what this project could do to their cities and their citizens, what to say about the silence of our South County cities?
And what to say about the “survey” now making the rounds in those environs courtesy of "Protect Jobs -- Support the Rail Extension”? It’s a push poll that assures potential respondents with a straight face that the project would be “be limited to property within refinery -- involving about 6,900 feet of new track.”
The 23,000 people who submitted comments to the County overwhelmingly opposing the project didn’t buy that one. Nor did Sierra Club, ForestEthics, Communities for a Better Environment or the Center for Biological Diversity in our comments on the project’s woefully deficient Environmental Impact Report
And 30 cities, counties and school boards, the California Nurses Association, California Teachers Association, National Education Association and the League of Women Voters aren’t buying it, either.
Come September, it will be time for South County citizens to strongly suggest to your city council that it, too, knows better. Make sure they get that message now, then show up at the Pismo Beach City Council meeting at 5:30 p.m. on the 1st, Grover Beach City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on the 21st, and/or Arroyo Grande City Hall at 6 p.m. on the 22nd to let your councilmembers know that you expect them to act to protect their citizens, and that means their ultimate response will have to be considerably more than “Thank you for your comments.”