Description: Challenge to project that would increase refinery’s capacity to import crude oil.
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Association of Irritated Residents v. Kern County Board of Supervisors
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 11/21/2017 Opinion Download Opinion issued reversing denial of petition for writ of mandate. California Appellate Court Said Review of Oil Refinery Project’s Greenhouse Gas Impacts Was Acceptable, But Found Fault with Other Aspects of Review. The California Court of Appeal found that the Kern County’s review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) of a project modifying an oil refinery in Bakersfield to accept lighter crude oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota was inadequate in two respects. The appellate court said the environmental impact report (EIR) contained factual errors regarding federal railroad safety data and improperly concluded that the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 preempted CEQA review of the environmental impacts of off-site rail activities. The appellate court rejected, however, claims that Kern County had used an inappropriate baseline year for the review, that the EIR’s disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions was misleading and deceptive, and that the County had improperly based its determination that the project’s greenhouse gas emissions would not be significant on the facility’s compliance with the requirements of California’s cap-and-trade program. -
Association of Irritated Residents v. Kern County Board of Supervisors
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/09/2014 Petition for Writ of Mandate Download Petition for writ of mandate filed. Three environmental groups commenced a lawsuit in California Superior Court challenging the approval by the Kern County Board of Supervisors of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a project that the groups alleged would result in a “five-fold increase” in the Alon Bakersfield Refinery’s capacity to import crude oil and allow the “shuttered” facility to reopen and operate at full capacity. The groups alleged a number of substantive California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) violations, including improper use of a 2007 baseline for the assessment of impacts that measured impacts from a point when the refinery was still operating when the baseline should have been current non-operational conditions. With respect to the project’s greenhouse gas emissions, petitioners alleged that the EIR failed to disclose the higher greenhouse emissions that result from refining tar sands; that the EIR had improperly failed to analyze greenhouse gas emissions associated with rail transportation on the grounds that federal law preempted CEQA; that the EIR had improperly assumed that the refinery’s required participation in the California cap-and-trade program would reduce its emissions to zero; and that the EIR ignored emissions from combustion of end products.