https://socialistaction.org/2019/06/27/philadelphia-oil-refinery-to-close-following-disastrous-fire/
Philadelphia oil refinery to close following disastrous fire
/ 2 days ago
July 2019 Refinery (Kimberly paynter:WHYY)
Protest rally outside the gates of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions
refinery. (Kimberly Paynter / WHYY-TV)
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER
Days after a devastating oil-refinery fire and explosion, Philadelphia
Energy Solutions (PES) announced on June 26 that it would close the
facility in 15 days. PES is the largest refinery on the East Coast,
turning heavy shale oil from North Dakota into gasoline. But it is
ridden with debt and only emerged from bankruptcy a year ago, after
asking workers to give concessions on their contract. Analysts have
speculated that the company lacks the financial resources to retool
after the June fires.
Over 1000 oil workers have been given lay-off notices. About 100
non-union employees were let go immediately and with no prior notice;
they were denied any severance pay. Thousands of other contract workers
will be affected by the shutdown.
At 4 a.m. on June 21, people in the largely Black and working-class
neighborhoods of South Philadelphia were awakened by a thunderous boom.
A mushroom-shaped fire cloud rose above the PES refinery; it was of such
magnitude that it could be observed from satellites in space. ???I could
see from my bedroom window something that almost looked like a nuclear
disaster,??? a local resident told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Over the next half hour, multiple explosions took place at a tank
containing butane and propane. The fire continued to burn for two days,
pouring thick black smoke over residential communities. It was the
second fire in a week at the 150-year-old refinery.
The former CEO of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, Philip Rinaldi, has
been talking with Democratic Party politicians in the effort to convince
investors to ???save the plant??? by renewing its operation as a
petro-chemical refining and oil storage center. But plans to prolong the
life of the facility have been met with outrage by residents of the
neighborhood and environmental activists.
On June 25, about 75 protesters, including many residents of the
neighborhood, massed near the main gates to the refinery complex. Some
residents participated in ???telling their stories,??? which included tragic
accounts of their families??? suffering with asthma, cancer, and other
debilities caused by the polluted environment.
The local environmental group Philly Thrive, which helped to organize
the rally, conducted a survey among neighbors of the refinery last May
and found that, among 314 respondents, over half had heart disease,
cancer, or a respiratory condition. Almost 34 percent had asthma,
compared to 19 percent in the city overall, and 8 percent nationally.
Speakers at the rally urged that the refinery grounds be cleaned up and
re-used for the common good. Some spoke for restoring the area as
parkland or a nature preserve, which could also provide space for
community-owned renewable power-generation facilities.
The Rev. Gregory Holston of the faith-based activist group POWER said,
???This is a wake-up call for Philadelphia! We not only demand that this
refinery be closed, but we demand that the city prohibit Philadelphia
Gas Works from opening its proposed gas-refining plant nearby??? (a
project that the city council recently approved despite widespread
opposition).
While correctly standing up for the jobs of its members, the
Steelworkers union leadership has positioned itself in opposition to the
call by area residents to close down the refinery and not allow it to
re-open. Ryan O???Callaghan, president of United Steelworkers Local 10-1,
which represents 614 workers at the plant, told WHYY-TV that ???those who
are calling for the refinery to be shut down, I don???t think they realize
the amount of people that rely on this refinery???s operations for part or
all of their salary.???
However, it is the big capitalists and banks???and not
environmentalists???who want to eliminate the jobs of the PES refinery
workers.
Without a doubt, it is necessary for the environmental movement to stand
up strongly in defense of the workers at the plant and to make common
cause in their struggles. Oil workers also suffer from the polluted air,
and over the years, quite a few have been injured or died from accidents
on the grounds (five workers were injured in the June 21 fire).
Some speakers at the June 25 protest rally acknowledged that converting
the economy away from reliance on fossil fuels would require a ???just
transition??? for oil workers, in which they would be retrained and hired
to work in the field of sustainable energy.
The site of the refinery, on the banks of the Schuylkill River, was once
a verdant area of sheep meadows and wetlands, with several creeks
running through it. Several inns and hotels operated there in the 18th
and early 19th centuries, serving sports fishermen, hunters, and
holidaymakers who came from the city to enjoy the beauties of nature.
But the environment changed as industrial uses became established in the
late 19th century.
The Atlantic Refining Company (later ARCO) built an oil refinery on the
river in 1870, and Gulf Oil opened one nearby in 1926. Both refineries
were purchased and merged by Sunoco in the 1988 and 1994. Finally, PES
was founded on the combined property in 2005, when Texas-based Energy
Transfer Partners and the Carlyle Group (an investment firm frequently
tied to the war armaments industry) ???rescued??? the refinery from
bankruptcy. The PES investors received a state-supported package that
included designating the complex as a tax-free zone, over $25 million in
grants, and environmental liability waivers.
For many years, the PES refinery and its predecessors have been
Philadelphia???s largest single polluter. It is responsible for 70 percent
of the city???s particulate air pollution, according to one study. It is
also the largest single source of pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and
sulfur dioxide, which are associated with causing or exacerbating
asthma, and carcinogens like benzene, toluene, and xylene.
The refinery is likewise the area???s largest single source of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for
climate change. The city???s draft Clean Energy Vision document states
that the refinery ???accounts for nearly 16 percent of Philadelphia???s
carbon footprint, not including the fossil fuel products exported off-site.???
The company has never been in compliance with the Clean Air Act, though
it has been punished with little more than a slap on the wrist, paying
$649,417 over the past five years for Clean Air violations.
Christina Simeone, a senior fellow at the the Kleinman Center for Energy
Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a paper last September
that pointed out, ???The soil and groundwater at the site are heavily
contaminated??? with gasoline and other chemicals. She said that some
contaminants have made their way far from the refinery and could even
impact a drinking water aquifer in New Jersey.
The plant has been cited for releasing chemicals into the ground and
sewers, and draining polluted water from a holding pond into the
Schuylkill River. But again, fines have been minimal. In 2011, the
Environmental Protection Agency ordered a vast clean-up of the refinery
complex after nearby residents complained of a petroleum smell in their
houses. The remediation process took six years to ???complete,??? although
the area is still highly polluted.
The dangers of contamination will continue even after the refinery is
closed. The refinery sits in a floodplain, and the site is quite likely
to be inundated in future decades as sea level continues to rise under
climate change. Unfortunately, remediating and restoring the land will
potentially take many years, and the fear is that the public will be
saddled into paying for it while the big oil barons who are responsible
for the mess grab their profits and make a getaway.
The oil industry has been continually subsidized while it despoils the
land and sea, ravages our health, and threatens the stability of the
planet with climate change. Now is the time, as we face an unprecedented
climate emergency, to demand that the entire fossil fuel industry be
nationalized under the control of the workers and oppressed communities
so that it can be converted to sustainable energy sources.
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June 27, 2019 in Environment, Philadelphia.
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