The Majority Agree: Fossil Fuels Damage Our Climate

A full 67 percent of adults in Contra Costa County believe that fossil fuel companies are responsible for global warming. This is based on a survey of Americans by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.  Plus, 72% of those surveyed say they distrust fossil fuel companies.

These Yale survey findings are no surprise to locals given the multiple explosions and fires in our fossil-fuel laden county, where major oil refineries line the route 680 corridor.  The cities of Martinez and Richmond, home to big-oil refineries, know first-hand just how badly refineries damage Contra Costa environments.

More Health Risks: Martinez Refinery Fires

On top of climate-warming damage, oil refineries also pose ongoing health risks to people living in nearby locations. Case in point: a major refinery fire blackened the skies on February 1st at the Martinez Refining Company.  

As reported 10 days after the fire in KQED News:

The cloud of thick black smoke that billowed over the East Bay community contained petroleum products at various stages of refinement and several other hazardous chemicals including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and xylene. … Health officials said some of the substances that were released can cause cancer and heart and lung disease.

Source: KQED News: 10 days after Martinez Refinery Fire

Sadly these refinery health threats are not new. There’s a history of refinery fires endangering community health in both Richmond and Martinez, CA. Martinez residents, just like Richmond residents, are fed up with the delayed or lack of community warning, the non-disclosure of all chemicals released, the continued safety failures, and the endangerment of community health and welfare.  (More at Sunflower-Alliance, Healthy Martinez, and Richmond Make Polluters Pay Tax.)

So how can we reduce big oil and fossil fuel dangers? Here are four ways to start fighting back.

4 Ways to Fight Contra Costa Fossil-Fuel Damage

1. Speak Out Against Refineries—Contact Your County Supervisor
   Tell the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to protect citizen health and to enforce safety reforms at the refineries. Find your Supervisor on the map with links to call or email. Even if you don’t live by the refineries, your supervisor needs to hear that YOU CARE about your neighbors’ health.
   
   
2. Attend “Protest on Trial” Webinars with GreenPeace San Francisco
   Mobilize to protect and exercise the right to rally against big oil in these weekly webinars. This is a response to the SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuit by Big Oil against Greenpeace for $300 million for supporting indigenous land rights at the Dakota Access Pipeline. The lawsuit is an attempt to erode the right of public protest and to intimidate and bankrupt environmental activist organizations.
   
   
3. Donate to Legal Funds to Stop Fossil-Fuel Wells
   Donate to help the Sunflower Alliance CalGEM lawsuit going to the California Supreme Court! Kudos to our ally Sunflower Alliance for their lawsuit to fight against gas-well reopenings. The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM)  allowed an oil drilling company to reopen a dry gas well without any CEQA environmental impact review. The well had been closed for a whopping 47 years!  This action has dire implications for reactivating closed wells throughout the state. DONATE to Sunflower’s legal expenses to stop reopening wells in CA. Read more and donate here to the Sunflower Alliance Lawsuit!
   
   
4. Sign this Make Polluters Pay Petition to Create a CA Climate Superfund
   Sign up to support the Polluter Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act. The act creates a full program to assess damages and collect funds from major polluters, with at least 40 percent of funding directed to communities hit hardest by fossil fuels—cities like Martinez and Richmond.