#refinery-closures

#refinery-closures

As the legislature inches closer to its Saturday deadline to pass legislation, there's more than just Cap-and-Trade being put on the agenda at the last minute. Early yesterday morning-the deadline for bills to be printed in order to be eligible for a vote during the final legislative session on Saturday-amendments to Senate Bill 237 were introduced that would allow for up to 2,000 new permits for oil extraction in Kern County annually. Last year, just 84 such permits were granted statewide.

California legislators are considering giving Valero Energy Corp. hundreds of millions of dollars to cover refinery maintenance costs in a bid to prevent the closure of a San Francisco-area fuel plant. Under such a deal, the state would pay Valero to continue operating its Benicia refinery, according to people familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The plant is slated to close by April, the latest in a string of recent California fuel-plant shutdowns.