Bay Area Refineries' Plans to Convert to Biofuels Opposed by Environmental Groups

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two large oil refineries in the Bay Area want to switch from processing crude oil and instead turn vegetable oil and animal fats into biofuels. Phillips 66 in Rodeo and Marathon in Martinez say their plans to convert the refineries to create renewable diesel advances California’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel reliance. But some environmental groups and communities close to the refineries oppose the plan, saying a reliance on biofuels contributes to deforestation and other environmental problems that actually accelerate climate change. As the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors considers an appeal to the plans next week, Forum looks at the local, state and global ramifications of California’s push toward biofuels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport. At SFO, you can shop,
0:06.7	dine, and unwind before your flight. Go ahead, treat yourself. Learn more about SFO restaurants and
0:12.7	shops at flysfo.com. Support for forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:23.1	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:29.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:35.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
0:43.3	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
0:51.7	Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:56.6	From KQED.
0:58.0	From KQED.
1:12.6	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. Two of the huge refineries that sit on the northern bay shore of Contra Costa County
1:17.6	are in the middle of the process to move away from using fossil fuels.
1:21.6	Instead of taking crude oil, cracking it into its hydrocarbon pieces,
1:25.6	and transforming it into petroleum products like gasoline,
1:29.3	these facilities will use vegetable oils to create renewable diesel.
1:33.3	The plans are big, the largest in the nation, and they seem to align with the goals that California's
1:39.3	2006 landmark climate legislation, AB32, laid out.
1:43.3	But is increasing biofuel production at local refinery still the way to go in 2022?
1:49.1	That's all coming up next after this news.
1:58.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Refinaries are massive, expensive, complex machines that produce the transportation fuels that just about everyone still uses. They also have serious local environmental effects, as many of the East Bay residents who live near the refinery complexes up there have attested.
2:23.7	As fossil fuel use declines, and it must, Bay residents living near refineries might have hoped that they'd go dark, their useful lifespan complete. Now, though, two of those refineries have
2:29.1	created plans to process renewable feedstocks, not only massively increasing the amount of renewable diesel
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.