California
California set to launch hundreds of community schools with $635 million in grants
A instructor reads a narrative to her prekindergarten college students at UCLA Neighborhood Faculty.
Picture by Allison Shelley for EDUimages
A instructor reads a narrative to her prekindergarten college students at UCLA Neighborhood Faculty.
Subsequent week, California will jumpstart a seven-year initiative to transform doubtlessly hundreds of colleges into full-service, parent-focused community faculties.
Authorized a 12 months in the past by the Legislature, the $3 billion California Neighborhood Colleges Partnership Program would be the nation’s most formidable effort to create faculties serving the multidimensional well being and studying wants of kids. Neighborhood faculties have come to be often called faculties with “wraparound companies.” The underlying assumption is {that a} holistic strategy to training, significantly in low-income areas with unmet primary wants, creates the very best situations for kids to thrive emotionally and academically.
At its assembly subsequent Wednesday, the State Board of Training is anticipated to approve $635 million in planning and implementation grants for 264 college districts, county places of work of training and constitution faculties.
On the advice of the California Division of Training, 193 districts, county places of work of training and constitution faculties will obtain $200,000 two-year planning grants within the first spherical.
The opposite 71 districts, with a minimum of some present neighborhood faculties, will obtain implementation grants overlaying 444 faculties; every college will obtain over 5 years between $712,500 for faculties with fewer than 150 college students to $2.375 million for faculties with greater than 2,000 college students. Colleges serving a minimum of 80% low-income youngsters will obtain precedence funding.
Districts and constitution faculties might be required to contribute a further third as their match of the state grants.
Oakland Unified, a district with presumably the most important focus of neighborhood faculties within the nation, would be the largest recipient, with $66 million to broaden and complement its neighborhood college community to 53 of the district’s 81 faculties.
Curtiss Sarikey, chief of employees for the district, stated he was excited by the information.
“We’d been doing this work for 10 years and have been poised for this second,” he stated. “The funding confirms that we now have the techniques in place to make the very best use of those {dollars}, with the objective of enhancing outcomes for youths.”
Los Angeles Unified will obtain $44.4 million for 31 faculties and San Francisco Unified will accumulate $33.7 million for 29 faculties. Rocketship Public Colleges, certainly one of a number of constitution college organizations to qualify for implementation grants, will get $15 million for 11 of its 13 faculties.
Small, rural districts additionally will obtain both planning or implementation grants. Among the many latter are $712,500 for Wheatland Union Excessive Faculty, close to Yuba Metropolis, and $4.3 million for Sanger Unified in Fresno County for 3 elementary faculties.
Large want with large funding
Many districts, besieged this 12 months with employees shortages, continual scholar absences, Covid masking and testing challenges, seem to have taken an preliminary cross. Greater than two-thirds of the planning and implementation funding stays for future rounds. Relying on who applies, there could also be greater than 1,400 neighborhood faculties, constituting a few third of the state’s faculties with a minimum of 80% low-income youngsters.
The launch comes at a second of clear want and considerable sources.
“The pandemic has highlighted the necessity to see faculties as hubs for the neighborhood,” stated Leslie Hu, a former social employee who’s the neighborhood college coordinator on the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Faculty in San Francisco. “We noticed what occurred to our younger individuals and needed to shift to higher attend to their wants, to do issues otherwise.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom made neighborhood faculties a high TK-12 precedence with final 12 months’s unprecedented post-pandemic state finances surplus. However the funding, averaging a number of hundred thousand {dollars} per 12 months per college, in itself is not going to massively broaden companies. There’ll be sufficient, relying on what every college chooses, to create a scholar wellness or mother or father heart or add one or two employees, whether or not a household liaison, social employee, counselor or music instructor.
The highest precedence for faculties, below the phrases of the grant, have to be to rent a faculty neighborhood coordinator. Like Hu in San Francisco, that particular person might be a key determine who should create and maintain partnerships with health-care suppliers, county companies, nonprofit organizations and neighborhood teams – and to create cohesion amongst typically disjointed applications and companies.
Along with community faculties, Newsom and the Legislature have devoted billions of {dollars} to new college applications that can unfold within the subsequent a number of years: an expanded day and seven-week summer season college for all low-income elementary college students; transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds; free lunches and breakfasts for all college students; expanded profession pathways in highschool; tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for workers improvement, and a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to rent Ok-three literacy coaches if the Legislature adopts his proposal.
These applications will profit greater than neighborhood faculties, however they mesh essentially with their mission.
MLK Center Faculty has established 50 partnerships – a feat few faculties can match. Hu stated they supply psychological well being case managers, after-school applications and develop methods to strengthen youth voices. The nonprofit Companions in Faculty Innovation works with academics on harnessing knowledge. Volunteers and nonprofits co-instruct well being training and train final Frisbee and pc coding. They lead crusing journeys and nature excursions.
With extra funding, Hu stated, the college will develop methods to construct college students’ social and emotional abilities, deal with attendance, which fell considerably this 12 months, and tutorial abilities.
Rocketship Colleges already views its faculties as neighborhood hubs, stated California Director Maricela Guerrero. It might use the cash to develop its Care Core Program, during which a devoted employees member at every college coordinates sources and applications to beat “studying obstacles” – whether or not housing, meals, counseling or psychological well being helps.
Sarikey stated the grants would allow neighborhood faculties to dig deeper into two or three ongoing priorities, whether or not scholar attendance, psychological well being, tutorial acceleration or enrichment. “As a result of we have already got round 50 neighborhood college managers in place, these {dollars} are actually going to empower faculties to make investments.”
4 pillars and clear commitments
Analysis and research have discovered that neighborhood faculties, when run properly, result in higher attendance, fewer self-discipline issues and continual absences, improved college cultures and higher communication with households and caregivers.
Based mostly on what the very best neighborhood faculties do, State Board of Training President Linda Darling-Hammond, an adviser to Newsom, and the architects of the California program concluded neighborhood faculties have to be greater than conventional faculties with a group of supplemental companies; faculties themselves should change, and academics and principals should rethink their roles and relationships.
Drafters of the state legislation creating this system established “4 pillars” that should information neighborhood faculties: integrating companies, together with trauma-informed well being companies; increasing studying time; sharing decision-making amongst educators and directors; and interesting households and the neighborhood. The state board added extra commitments – a willingness to share energy, the usage of “restorative practices moderately than punitive, exclusionary self-discipline,” and an appreciation of a neighborhood’s tradition, heritage, and strengths.
Trusting relationships, Hu stated, are constructed by collaboration and listening to households, Hu stated. For example, she stated, math academics at her college and after-school employees who usually aren’t concerned in curriculum, began assembly collectively. That led to an after-school acceleration class during which employees served as aides to academics, and helped with an after-school on-line math abilities program.
Listening to the voices of scholars is essential, stated Laura Zavala, senior technique director with Californians for Justice, a nonprofit that trains scholar activists. On the Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez Excessive Faculty in Los Angeles, surveys and city halls for folks and college students highlighted scholar well being points, together with excessive bronchial asthma charges. That finally led to the development of a $6.5 million health heart on campus. “Having a school-based wellness heart the place college students and their households can go to was a precedence for the neighborhood,” Zavala stated.
An skilled’s cautionary warning
Milbrey McLaughlin, a professor emeritus of training and public coverage at Stanford College, is a self-described fan of neighborhood faculties who tracked their improvement over eight years in her 2020 ebook The Approach We Do Faculty: The Making of Oakland’s Full-Service Neighborhood Faculty District. She stated she was impressed by how faculties addressed completely different wants “by involving households that by no means earlier than had felt revered.”
“The household engagement in Oakland was spectacular,” she stated.
However she stated she is apprehensive whether or not directors and academics in districts receiving the funding will essentially change how they function schools and open them to folks and the neighborhood. “Altering norms is difficult and takes time,” she stated. “I’m concerned that in 5 years, we’ll have a look at what we invested and never see outcomes.”
Conscious that districts will want steering and assist, the Newsom administration in-built $166 million to fund a community of a minimum of 5 regional technical help facilities that can help districts create neighborhood faculties and oversee their progress. The Alameda County Workplace of Training would be the lead company, if the State Board approves its $20 million grant.
The California Partnership for the Way forward for Studying, a coalition that features Public Advocates, Development Undertaking California, Californians for Justice, and Los Angeles-based Neighborhood Coalition, desires tighter transparency and accountability necessities written into the neighborhood faculties program.
In a letter to legislative leaders, the coalition requires requiring neighborhood college grantees to yearly report and publicly current to folks and the neighborhood on progress on attaining the objectives, and an annual analysis, backed by knowledge, on whether or not the college’s practices are proving efficient. The coalition additionally desires the state to ban utilizing neighborhood college funding to employees police and security officers.
“We don’t count on neighborhood faculties to be robust instantly in all program’s cornerstone commitments and 4 pillars, however they need to assess the place they’re and whether or not they’re attentive to their communities,” stated Erin Apte, senior legislative counsel for Public Advocates.
Sarikey’s recommendation to districts beginning neighborhood faculties is take the lengthy view.
“5 years is a superb time to implement and attempt to get some completely different outcomes. It’s additionally not that lengthy within the large image,” he stated. “I might ask, ‘How do you concentrate on sustainability from Day 1?’ What techniques, processes and possession are you going to construct so this doesn’t turn into simply one other grant program, a flash within the pan. After which when the 5 years goes away, so does a big a part of what you as soon as began.”
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A group of horses walk along a road as they are being evacuated during the Park Fire in the community of Cohasset near Chico, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2024.
Park Fire in Chico
A home destroyed by the Park Fire is seen in Chico, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25 a general view of damaged structure as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25 a general view of damaged structure as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Smoke and flames rise from the forest as crews try to extinguish a wildfire in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews battle against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Dozens of burned up cars that were destroyed by the Park Fire in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: A view of huge smoke as crews are battling against to flames which Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Smoke and flames rise from the forest as crews try to extinguish a wildfire in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: A view of huge smoke as crews are battling against to flames which Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Smoke and flames rise from the forest as crews try to extinguish a wildfire in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Smoke and flames rise from the forest as crews try to extinguish a wildfire in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: A view of huge smoke as crews are battling against to flames which Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire: Wildfire in Chico of California
CALIFORNIA, USA – JULY 25: Crews are battling against to flames as Park Fire of wildfires continue in Chico, California, United States on July 25, 2024.
Park Fire in Cohasset
A sports utility vehicle is seen engulfed in flames during the Park Fire in the community of Cohasset near Chico, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2024.
US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-FIRE
Fire engines drive through flames ripping across Highway 36 as the Park fire continues to burn near Paynes Creek in unincorporated Tehama County, California on July 26, 2024. A huge, fast-moving and rapidly growing wildfire in northern California has forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate as firefighters battle gusty winds and perilously dry conditions, authorities said on July 26.
Firefighters Battle The Park Fire In California
The Park Fire near Chico, California, US, on Friday, July 26, 2024. Arson investigators in California arrested a man on suspicion of starting the state’s largest wildfire this year – a conflagration that has prompted evacuations and threatened the state’s power grid. Photographer: Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 26: A massive pyrocumulus cloud rises from the Park Fire, which has grown to 239,152 acres and is 0 percent contained, expands at a rapid rate on July 26, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousand of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 26: A massive pyrocumulus cloud rises from the Park Fire, which has grown to 239,152 acres and is 0 percent contained, expands at a rapid rate on July 26, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousand of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Firefighters Battle The Park Fire In California
A plane drops fire retardant during the Park Fire near Chico, California, US, on Friday, July 26, 2024. Arson investigators in California arrested a man on suspicion of starting the state’s largest wildfire this year – a conflagration that has prompted evacuations and threatened the state’s power grid. Photographer: Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-FIRE
Vehicles drive through flames ripping across Highway 36 as the Park fire continues to burn near Paynes Creek in unincorporated Tehama County, California on July 26, 2024. A huge, fast-moving and rapidly growing wildfire in northern California has forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate as firefighters battle gusty winds and perilously dry conditions, authorities said on July 26.
US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-FIRE
A property is seen in flames as the Park fire continues to burn near Paynes Creek in unincorporated Tehama County, California on July 26, 2024. A huge, fast-moving and rapidly growing wildfire in northern California has forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate as firefighters battle gusty winds and perilously dry conditions, authorities said on July 26.
TOPSHOT-US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-FIRE
TOPSHOT – Resident Grant Douglas takes a drink of water while evacuating his wife and dog as the Park fire continues to burn near Paynes Creek in unincorporated Tehama County, California on July 26, 2024. More than 1,150 personnel are deployed to fight the blaze, which has burned more than 180,000 acres and burned dozens of homes, and more than 3,500 people have been forced to flee their homes, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
TOPSHOT-US-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE-FIRE
TOPSHOT – A property is seen in flames as the Park fire continues to burn near Paynes Creek in unincorporated Tehama County, California on July 26, 2024. A huge, fast-moving and rapidly growing wildfire in northern California has forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate as firefighters battle gusty winds and perilously dry conditions, authorities said on July 26.
Park Fire in Butte County
Vehicles destroyed by the Park Fire are seen in the community of Cohasset near Chico, Calif., Friday, July 26, 2024.
Park Fire Ravages Communities In California
A destroyed car is seen parked along Cohasset Road in Cohasset, Calif. Friday, July 26, 2024 after the Park Fire ripped through the community and continues to burn through Butte County.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: The ruins of a structure are seen near the small community of Payne Creek as the Park Fire, which has grown to 348,370 acres and is still 0 percent contained, continues to expand on July 27, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: Wild turkeys walk on scorched earth near the small community of Payne Creek as the Park Fire, which has grown to 348,370 acres and is still 0 percent contained, continues to expand on July 27, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: A burned truck is seen near the small community of Payne Creek as the Park Fire, which has grown to 348,370 acres and is still 0 percent contained, continues to expand on July 27, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: The ruins of a structure are seen near the small community of Payne Creek as the Park Fire, which has grown to 348,370 acres and is still 0 percent contained, continues to expand on July 27, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
Park Fire Burns Thousands Of Acres In Northern California After Man Charged With Arson
CHICO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: The ruins of a structure are seen near the small community of Payne Creek as the Park Fire, which has grown to 348,370 acres and is still 0 percent contained, continues to expand on July 27, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. In 2018, more than 18,000 structures were destroyed and 85 people killed in the nearby town of Paradise when the Camp Fire entrapped thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.
The blaze has nearly doubled in size since Friday morning. It’s burning about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
Watch: Firefighters try to tame massive Park Fire in California
The destructive Park Fire has burned over 150,000 acres in California.
A fire that allegedly started when a man pushed a flaming car into a gully in a Northern California park on Wednesday has quickly ballooned into the West’s largest fire burning right now and one of the largest in state history.
The Park Fire, about 90 miles north of Sacramento, has now burned over 307,000 acres as of Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire. It’s currently the eighth-largest fire in California history, has no containment, and is even producing its own clouds.
The blaze has roughly doubled in size since Friday morning when it engulfed an area the size of Chicago.
Prosecutors allege the fire started when Ronnie Stout sent his mother’s car ablaze 60 feet down an embankment near Alligator Hole in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park. That gave the fire its match to spread northward across the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Triple-digit temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds contributed to the Park Fire’s rapid growth, officials say. The Park Fire on Saturday has burned an area roughly the size of the city of Los Angeles. So far, the Park Fire has damaged 134 structures, Cal Fire’s latest incident report showed.
Cooler temperatures, with highs in the upper 80s, and more humidity are expected Saturday, according to the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office. On Friday afternoon, officials hoped these conditions would give some 2,500 firefighters the needed respite to reduce the fire’s spread from Butte County into Tehama County, where the majority of the fire is now occurring, as it burns grass, brush, timber and dead vegetation.
Evacuation orders and warnings continued through Friday night, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office announced. This included warnings for Magalia in the foothills east of Chico, located just next to Paradise, the California town burned by the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed 14,000 homes and killed 85 people. The Camp Fire, caused by faulty Pacific Gas & Electric power lines, maxed out at 153,336 acres, half the size of the current Park Fire.
There are nearing 100 large wildfires across 10 western states and Alaska that have burned over a million acres and growing. Climate change is driving fires’ growing size and severity as warmer temperatures, high winds and dry conditions help fuel fires.
Contributing: Christopher Cann and Dinah Pulver of USA TODAY
Gov. Gavin Newsom often touts California’s role as a global climate leader. Yet it’s hard to defend that claim as long as California remains one of the nation’s top oil-refining states, experts argued at a recent webinar calling for a phaseout of refineries.
The state has made major strides implementing policies to support the transition away from fossil fuels in the transportation and energy sectors, yet has largely ignored oil refineries.
This is an egregious oversight, policy experts and community advocates on the panel said, because refineries are the largest source of industrial fossil fuel pollution and one of the biggest threats to both health and the climate.
“There are significant acute and chronic public health and climate impacts from refiners,” said Woody Hastings, a policy expert at The Climate Center, a nonprofit that hosted the webinar and is working to rapidly reduce climate pollution. “There is no plan to phase them out.”
Explore the latest news about what’s at stake for the climate during this election season.
California can embrace its role as a global leader by charting a path to phasing out refineries that others can follow, as it’s done before, he said. When California passed a measure to cut vehicle tailpipe emissions in 2002, 13 other states followed suit. When it passed a 2018 law requiring that all electricity come from renewable sources by 2045, 10 other states and the federal government adopted the same goal, Hastings said.
The most recent climate Conference of the Parties, COP28 in Dubai, called for a transition away from fossil fuels and energy systems in a just, orderly and equitable manner, Hastings said. “Let’s have California create the model for how to do it.”
All the other major fossil fuel sectors—electricity, transportation and oil drilling—have some form of phaseout requirements and plan to lower emissions, said Alicia Rivera, an organizer with the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment who works in Wilmington, a Los Angeles neighborhood dominated by oil wells and refineries. “Refineries have none.”
The costs of inaction are clear, she said. Almost all the census tracts near refineries are communities of color forced to endure very high toxic releases and other health harms, Rivera said.
“People on the other side of the refinery cannot see the emissions because they are invisible,” she said. “But they are large and they are always there, nonstop.”
Refineries convert crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products like butane and propane. One refinery can cover thousands of acres, with massive heaters and boilers superheating the crude and separating the liquids that will become gas and other fuels. The refining process, storage tanks and flaring—the burning of excess hydrocarbons—all emit pollution and toxic gases like lung-damaging sulfur dioxides and cancer-causing benzene.
“People on the other side of the refinery cannot see the emissions because they are invisible. But they are large and they are always there, nonstop.”
Oil refineries must report annual benzene emissions. But various studies have shown that many refineries underestimate emissions of volatile organic compounds, including benzene, understating the health risks.
“We’ve seen places where California has found significant risk from benzene without including that massive underestimation,” said Julia May, senior scientist with Communities for a Better Environment. “If you include the underestimation, that means the cancer risk is higher. It’s also a VOC that contributes to smog.”
Working Toward a Just Transition
California has failed to act partly because several cities benefit financially from contributing to the nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil refined a day in the state, May said, noting that regulators are under “severe pressure” to avoid phaseout requirements.
But just two refinery products, gasoline and diesel, cause about half of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, she said. “You can’t solve the smog or climate disaster without phasing out oil refineries.”
The state must start looking at ways to reduce refineries’ production on the road to a full shutdown, May urged. “We’re not talking about shutting down refineries tomorrow. All we’re asking for is, start a plan over the next two decades and start with gasoline and diesel.”
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California policy is headed toward no more oil production, which will significantly reduce refining capacity in the state, said Kevin Slagle, spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents oil extractors and refiners. “An EV mandate that limits the sale of internal combustion cars may not say, ‘Hey refinery, you have to reduce production by X amount,’” he said. “But if you don’t have vehicles on the road that use that product, the refiners are probably not going to be here.”
Even without specific bills that mandate refinery reductions, Slagle said, California policy will lead to fewer refineries in the state, “probably quicker than folks expect.”
That phaseout needs to be managed in a way that doesn’t leave workers behind, the panelists argued. And that requires understanding that the phrase “just transition” means different things to different people, said Brian White, a longtime union leader and policy director for Eduardo Martinez, mayor of Richmond, home of the Chevron refinery, where a catastrophic fire and explosion in 2012 sent 15,000 people to the hospital.
White’s union, the United Steelworkers, coined the term “just transition,” he said. For refinery workers it means making sure they can shift to a job with dignity, benefits and pay. For environmentalists, he said, it’s moving from a dirty, dangerous industry to a cleaner, greener world. And for local governments, it means replacing revenue lost by closing refineries in order to continue providing the services communities need.
The different groups need to recognize that they’re working toward the same goals, White said. On that note, he added, the Richmond City Council recently voted to place a “polluters tax” on the November ballot.
“Oil refining has negative impacts on the city, including environmental hazards, public health harms and stress on emergency services,” White said. The tax on oil refining—Chevron’s Richmond refinery is one of the biggest in the nation—aims to improve the city’s financial position and the quality of life for Richmond residents, he said, especially those most affected by the oil refinery.
How to coordinate policies designed to reduce demand for refinery products like gasoline and phase out refineries remains a major challenge, the panelists said.
One in every four new car sales in California is a zero-emission vehicle, said Siva Gunda, vice chair of the California Energy Commission. “We’ve crossed our peak demand of gasoline in California in 2017,” he said, noting a downward trend that he expects to continue. “Yet even if we are wildly successful with EVs, there will be some demand.”
For Gunda, it’s imperative to find ways to reduce demand for fossil fuel products while expanding access to zero-emission vehicles and renewable energy for all Californians, especially for fenceline communities where residents suffer from higher rates of respiratory problems like asthma attacks, heart disease and cancer.
Gunda saw firsthand the disproportionate burdens these communities endure when Rivera, the community organizer, took him on a tour of Wilmington. This predominantly Black and Latino community at Los Angeles’ southern edge sits atop the third-largest oil field in the country. Residents have such a distinctive way of clearing their throats it’s called the Wilmington cough.
“It’s heartbreaking to imagine that some of us get to see our grandmothers a little bit longer than some of us, because of where we live,” Gunda said.
Yet the climate crisis will not affect only disadvantaged communities, the panelists warned.
Climate change is widespread and rapidly intensifying, May said. She pointed to a 2022 study from the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that studies U.S. risks from climate change, which found that about a quarter of the country could be practically unlivable in 30 years, frequently reaching temperatures higher than 125 degrees Fahrenheit. “It’s really quite frightening,” she said.
“We need just-transition planning to phase out refineries,” May said. “We need to deal with replacing the taxes. We need to support the workers. We need to support the communities and we need to survive catastrophic climate change. We can do it.”
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Thank you,
Liza Gross
Reporter, California
Liza Gross is a reporter for Inside Climate News based in Northern California. She is the author of The Science Writers’ Investigative Reporting Handbook and a contributor to The Science Writers’ Handbook, both funded by National Association of Science Writers’ Peggy Girshman Idea Grants. She has long covered science, conservation, agriculture, public and environmental health and justice with a focus on the misuse of science for private gain. Prior to joining ICN, she worked as a part-time magazine editor for the open-access journal PLOS Biology, a reporter for the Food & Environment Reporting Network and produced freelance stories for numerous national outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Discover and Mother Jones. Her work has won awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Society of Professional Journalists NorCal and Association of Food Journalists.
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