Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Environmental Justice Activist Jesse Marquez speaks with EcoJustice Radio how communities can prepare to confront the dangers of living around five oil refineries, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and hemmed in by the truck-clogged 710 and 110 freeways.
California communities are fighting back against the prospect of a 25-fold increase in the amount of crude-by-rail coming into the state soon. Ed Ruszel didn’t set out to be an environmental activist. Then Valero Energy announced a plan to bring 3 million gallons of tar sands crude—every day—within feet of his family business.
Taking heed of the growing climate turmoil such as drought in California, unprecedented melting of the Arctic glaciers and the most rain ever recorded in Great Britain, more than 60 organizations will march in Los Angeles on March 1st to launch the coast-to-coast Great March for Climate Action.
Valero Energy seeks permits for large-scale shipments of low-quality tar sands oil via rail into their Port of Los Angeles refinery, without any public comment or environmental review. As part of a larger move to transport climate-disrupting unconventional crude to ports for refining and export to the world, it presents dangers given recent rail accidents, the corrosive nature of tar sands bitumen, and the significant pollution that surrounding communities already live with.
California’s Proposition 23 pits two Texas oil companies, Valero and Tesoro, billionaire-brothers Koch Industries, and a host of fossil fuel industry supporters, aiming to “suspend the implementation” of the state’s landmark global warming legislation, AB 32. It failed.