From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Residents of Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo were ordered to
stay in their homes with the windows and doors closed Monday night after
a series of explosions and fires tore through Chevron's
Richmond refinery.
The explosions started about 6:15 p.m. and at least two large fires spewed thick, black smoke into the darkening sky.
The
fire started at the refinery's No. 4 Crude Unit, Chevron officials
said. All employees had been accounted for and there were no fatalities,
but one refinery worker suffered burns that were not life-threatening.
Chevron would not speculate on the cause of the fire.....
The refinery was founded more than a century ago and is Northern
California's largest, capable of processing more than 242,000 barrels of
oil each day. It is the third-largest refinery in the state. A
prolonged closure could push up gasoline prices, which are already
rising nationwide because of a rally in the market for crude oil.
I'm pretty sure Las Vegas gets it's gas from Phoenix instead of California, so we may not feel too much of an effect.
But the company wanted to renovate the refinery but: Chevron has for years wanted to overhaul and upgrade the facility. But
many Richmond residents and environmentalists have objected, claiming
the project would create more air pollution in a community that already
has too much. Although Richmond's City Council approved the renovation
project in 2008, a judge halted construction work the following year,
ruling that Chevron had not answered key questions in the project's
environmental impact report.
I bet those environmentalists and judge are regretting their stupidity.
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