New plan could keep Valero Refinery plant in Benicia from closing next year, report says

"The Valero Refinery in Benicia is slated to close next April. But state lawmakers may be stepping in to help. California could pay hundreds of millions of dollars to cover maintenance costs at Valero's plant, according to Bloomberg. Benicia is home to 26,000 people. Its biggest employer is Valero Energy Corporation with about 400 workers. Valero also produces about 9% of California's gas."

"The proposed bailout of $80 to $200 million would help pay for maintenance costs at the plant that was built in 1968. We asked city leaders in Benicia about the proposal. "The city supports anything that the legislature or the governor is willing to do in order to incentivize the Valero Benicia refinery to maintain its operations...if they were to close, we'd experience a 10-12-million-dollar annual shortfall," said Sarah Shawky, Deputy City Manager of Benicia."

""California have been really pushing their refineries to the limit. This is the second potential closure or refinery in the last 6 months," said De Haan. "California has long had very restrictive rules and regulations when it comes to refineries and some of them have had enough." De Haan says California is doing "an about-face and stepping in to keep refineries from shutting down.""

Valero Refinery in Benicia is slated to close next April due to high costs and a massive fine for unlawful toxic emissions. State lawmakers are negotiating to provide $80–$200 million, or potentially hundreds of millions, to cover maintenance costs at the plant built in 1968. The refinery employs about 400 workers in a city of 26,000 and supplies roughly 9% of California’s gasoline. City officials support incentives to keep operations to avoid a $10–12 million annual budget shortfall. Analysts say strict California refinery regulations have pushed facilities toward closures, prompting state intervention to prevent supply disruptions.

Read at ABC7 San Francisco