Gary Graham Hughes
Over the last two weeks of March, the Contra Costa County Planning Commission held hearings and certified the Final Environmental Impact Reports (FEIR) for two unprecedented SF Bay Area refinery conversions to manufacturing ‘drop in’ liquid biofuels.
Both the Marathon-Neste joint venture at the Martinez refinery biofuels project and the Phillips 66 Rodeo refinery biofuels project have essentially been in simultaneous review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) since the beginning of 2021.
The county Planning Commission decision to certify the FEIRs has already been appealed by a coalition of local, national and international organizations. These groups include the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Biofuelwatch, Center for Biological Diversity, Communities for a Better Environment, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and others.
The appeals of these projects will be heard by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors in May and June. As of this writing, the dates of these appeals hearings have not been set.
Though Phillips 66 has not yet completed the permitting for their refinery conversion, the Rodeo refinery has already begun processing soy feedstock into a ‘drop in’ diesel biofuel, known in industry terms as ‘renewable diesel.’
This diesel biofuel product is different from ‘biodiesel’ as it does not need to be blended with petroleum-based diesel, nor does it require the modification of a diesel engine for its use — hence the term ‘drop in’ to describe the ‘renewable diesel.’
The soy and canola oil based liquid biofuel product refined at the Phillips 66 Rodeo facility is already available at 76 brand gas stations in Humboldt County, despite the fact that Phillips 66 has not yet secured permits from regulatory authorities to manufacture this fuel.
The ‘renewable diesel’ is produced by a ’hydrotreated esters and fatty acids’ (HEFA) refining process for ‘hydrocracking’ the vegetable oil feedstocks to make the ‘drop in’ fuel. The process actually requires massive amounts of hydrogen, which is acquired by the steam reformation of fossil gas, making the refining process itself highly fossil fuel reliant and emissions intensive.
Calculations indicate that the processing of soy feedstock into a ‘drop in’ fuel is as greenhouse gas intensive as processing crude petroleum.
Regulatory authorities have been reluctant to look closely at the predictable climate impacts resulting from the scaling up of this technology for refining liquid biofuels, instead choosing to certify the FEIRs and ignore comments raising these questions.
State authorities have also dismissed the growing body of scientific evidence showing that increased demand of high deforestation risk commodity feedstock like soy for making biofuels contributes to the market dynamics that are driving tropical forest loss, as well as dramatically exacerbating the global food crisis.
The appeal process will offer an opportunity to further expose the erroneous assumptions and flawed science justifying these liquid biofuels as a climate solution. EcoNews will bring you more news on this matter as it evolves.
Gary works as the Americas Program Coordinator with the international organization Biofuelwatch (biofuelwatch.org.uk).