July, 2008
Message from Mayor McLaughlin

Chevron Proposal Comes to Council

Dear Friends,

Please mark Tuesday night, July 15 and Wednesday night, July 16th on your calendars (see further details below).

These dates, my friends, are when the Richmond City Council will examine the appeals concerning the environmental review and conditions of approval for the proposed Chevron project.

100 plus years of the cumulative and synergistic impact from various pollutants exiting Chevron smokestacks and entering our residents' lungs constitutes a major environmental injustice against the people of Richmond. It is most definitely time for courage and transformation in Richmond. 3 points I would like to stress are:

1. The Environmental Impact Report needs to be re-circulated! This is an extremely flawed environmental impact report with massive omissions and contradictions that should be disclosed to all. This EIR and proposed conditions drawn from it have been derived in part from secret information. This is not in the interest of good government and the EIR must be re-circulated, if Richmond is to turn itself around and stand for transparency and accountability as it should .

2. A comprehensive oil quality condition (crude cap) is essential to disallow dirtier crude from being refined, which is known to create more pollution, more risk, more spills and releases in to our air, water, and land.

3. No secretly negotiated community funds as a trade-off for the comprehensive cap. No money for pollution...our health is not for sale! Any community benefits must be addressed separately and by way of an open process.

Please come share the message of a healthier and more just Richmond with your City Council.

Here are the details of the meetings on 7/15 and 7/16:

Tuesday, July 15 at Kennedy High School 4300 Cutting Blvd

6:15 pm - Vigil honoring lives lost and all who suffer from environmental disease. Bring photos of loved ones who have died of cancer and disease.

7 pm - City Council public hearing on the Chevron expansion. Public Comment will be taken. It may be very late in the evening, so make arrangements, if possible!

Wednesday, July 16 (cont.) at Kennedy High School, 4300 Cutting Blvd.

7 pm - City Council to question staff/consultants, deliberate and vote.

Please come to show the community's message of environmental justice by way of your very presence and by holding signs!

Buses to and from the hearing will be departing from: 3rd and Chesley in N. Richmond, Atchison and Liberty Village and from St. Mark's Church. To reserve seats on the bus or childcare inquiries, please contact Jessica Tovar 510-302-0430 X24 or 415 596-3517 jessica@cbecal.org

The Richmond City Council has a challenge at hand. It can support the community’s demands for a clean environment and public health; or it can allow Chevron to lock in 50 years of having the possibility of refining cheaper, dirtier, more contaminated crude.

Oil companies across the county are watching the outcome here to see if the people of Richmond will create a model of restraint and preventive measures for the entire oil industry. We are presenting this model, not for the oil industry, but for the people of the world.

We are displaying a model of people standing up to the second largest oil company on the planet and saying: It is time to set precedent in the direction of our health and safety. Chevron's pollution, Chevron's domination of city government, Chevron's reaping obscene profits at the expense of our health, and Chevron’s massive contribution to global warming must stop.

See you next Tuesday (7/15) and next Wednesday (7/16) night at Kennedy High! It is the power of numbers and the power of people that makes all the difference in the world!

Sincerely,

Gayle McLaughlin Mayor, City of Richmond