"Thankfully, last week's explosion and fire at California's second largest refinery, Chevron's El Segundo plant, was not an environmental catastrophe. But it could have serious economic and political impact. It occurred as Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic figures were in the midst of a 180-degree political pirouette: a shift from denouncing makers of gasoline as price gouging polluters, to beseeching them to continue production."
"California's 30-million-plus cars and light trucks average 340 billion miles of travel each year and burn 13 billion gallons of gas, all but a trickle of which comes from the nine refineries. There are no pipelines to bring in fuel from other states, and importing gasoline from Asia or the Middle East via tankers is fraught with uncertainty and high costs."
An explosion and fire at Chevron's El Segundo refinery did not cause an environmental catastrophe but could produce serious economic and political consequences. The incident coincided with Governor Gavin Newsom's shift from attacking refiners to urging continued production. California now operates nine refineries, with two planned closures, and regional concentration leaves the state vulnerable: Valero and Phillips 66 together represent about 17% of capacity. Legislators have considered subsidies to prevent shutdowns. Loss of El Segundo could push statewide capacity losses past one-third, creating supply shortages, higher pump prices, and limited import or pipeline options.
Read at The Mercury News
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