Ten years ago, an explosion and fire at a Richmond Chevron refinery sent black smoke and rain of sharp chemicals across the East Bay City, sending thousands to hospitals gasping for air. At that time, tragedy dominated the airwaves.
Today, the event is a footnote to the history of the Bay Area. But on Saturday a group of community members and activists marched through Richmond to the refinery to commemorate the event, demanding an end to fossil fuels and the refinery’s dominance of the city for more than 100 years.
About 60 protesters gathered at Richmond Bart Station on Saturday morning, carrying banners decorated with sunflowers and slogans such as “Stop Climate Chaos,” “Chevron Kills,” and “Chevrons Burn in Action,” a reference to the pillars of fire that continue to burn near refinery stacks. .
Some families brought in young children, including a woman with two children on the back of her bike who had a cardboard sign with a child’s hand on it that read, “We need clean air to breathe. We need clean water for our marine animals too. Chevron must go!”
Richmond resident Kat Lee, an activist with the Asia Pacific Environmental Network, said she remembers watching news of the 2012 explosion from her aunt’s home in San Leandro, and worrying about the effects the black plume of smoke could have on her mother and sister. , then a two-year-old with asthma.
Lee said she hopes the rally will help “hold Chevron accountable,” and highlight the need to move to clean energy sources like solar.
As the march made its way westward down the lanes of MacDonald Street, protesters on bikes blocked cars from entering intersections and sang upbeat hip-hop and afrobeat tunes, complemented by the occasional chirping of a sympathetic car horn.
“We are all united in the need to get rid of fossil fuels,” said Jack Lucero Flick, a retired traffic engineer in San Francisco walking with a sign depicting a sunflower logo for the march. Flick said the march was a commemoration, but also a call to action to use available technology to move away from dirty energy sources like fossil fuels.
He acknowledged that the city of Richmond is filling its coffers with tax revenue from the refinery, but he wants to see public dollars spent in alternatives so the jobs the refinery creates can be transferred to the clean energy industries.
As the motorcade winds down the Richmond Parkway past a train yard crammed with shipping containers, Doria Robinson of Richmond, part of the Richmond Alliance Our Strength and CEO of Urban Tilth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating a more sustainable and equitable diet, signaled an explosion.
“From my front porch on 12th Street, I could see the fire,” Robinson said. The smoke then blackened the sky, covering the Urban Tilth garden where local youths had been growing food all summer with “sticky black soot.”
Robinson said that while it was important to set the date, her group is looking to Richmond without a refinery. She said an affiliate group, Societies for a Better Environment, was working on a plan to decommission the plant to be proposed to elected officials.
“We need a public fund (Richmond) that is not dependent on fossil fuels,” Robinson said.
Chevron did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the memorial rally.
A report on the explosion found that it was exacerbated by a faulty emergency response, lax approach to safety procedures and inspections that may have prevented the event.
After joining another group of protesters and swelling their ranks to more than 100 people, the protesters made their way to the gates of the Chevron refinery. There protesters painted and touched the road’s colorful murals with anti-Chevron slogans, and waved yellow and black signs that read “Stand Up Against Big Oil.”
Richmond police cars monitored the event, and none of the Chevron representatives emerged from the black gate locked behind a layer of hurricane fence.
Then Richmond Deputy Mayor Eduardo Martinez called on the crowd to take local action on climate justice. After his speech, Martinez acknowledged that “the refinery is not going away” anytime soon, but said the city and community can find ways to live with its existence until it is finally shut down.
Martinez, who is running for mayor of Richmond, said the refinery needs to contribute more to the city’s tax revenue than it currently does. He also put forward ideas such as Chevron putting money into industrial risk bonds that would pay out damages to the city and community the refinery caused.
“Chevron has to pay its fair share,” Martinez said.
Chase DeFeliciantonio is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: Tweet embed