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Hundreds descend on SLO to protest Phillips 66 rail spur

February 5, 2016

Rail Spur protest

Opponents of Phillips 66’s proposed rail spur came from across California Thursday to protest the project as it appeared before the San Luis Obispo County Planing Commission. An estimated total of more than 500 people showed up to the first day of a two-day hearing on the planned rail spur.

Phillips 66 plans to build a rail spur so that crude oil currently delivered by pipeline could be transported to the Nipomo refinery by rail. The proposed project includes a 6,915-foot rail spur, an unloading facility, on-site pipelines, replacement of coke rail loading tracks and the construction of five parallel tracks with the capacity to hold a 5,190-foot train.

Four buses carrying opponents of the project arrived in San Luis Obispo on Thursday. The buses came from the Nipomo Mesa, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Jose.

Members of the local homeless community also attended the planning commission hearing. Homeless individuals were seen eating pizza and holding signs.

An overflow crowd poured out of the board chambers and into the lobby and a conference room of the county building, as well as the neighboring Fremont Theater. The meeting was televised on a screen in the theater.

A total of 83 members of the public spoke at Thursday’s hearing, mostly in opposition to the project. About 400 meeting attendees submitted speakers slips.

The planning commission is scheduled to continue the hearing Friday. It is likely the hearing will take three or four days to complete due to the amount of public commenters.

Multiple public officials spoke in opposition to the project. They included San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal and Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider. Both Carbajal and Schneider are congressional candidates.Rail Spur protest

Additionally, the county has received more than 24,000 letters opposing the project. Some of the letters came from public bodies, like the San Luis Obispo City Council.

The county received about 150 letters in favor of the proposed rail spur.

On Monday, county staff released a report saying the rail spur could result in oil spills and fires which could impact natural resources and agriculture. The report also said the project would generate toxic air emissions that exceed San Luis Obispo County health risk thresholds.

County staff is recommending the planning commission reject the project.

Phillips 66 officials say oil production is decreasing in California, and the rail spur would allow the company to bring in crude from new suppliers.

Company officials say the project would preserve 200 jobs at the Nipomo refinery. It would also create 200 temporary construction jobs and 12 new permanent positions, according to the company.

Crude oil is currently trading at less than $35 a barrel, and it hit a nearly 13-year low of $27 a barrel late last month. The price decline has caused numerous layoffs in the oil industry.

After the planning commission rules on the proposed rail spur, the Phillips 66 project is expected to be appealed to the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors.


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According to some misguided individuals life on earth was supposed to have ended a few years ago. The last time I checked the earth was still rotating on it axis at 1,040 mph, the moon still shows up on schedule, and that beautiful sun rises every morning. The person who predicted the earth would cease to exist no longer exists. I guess time does heal everything.


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all protesters drove hundreds of miles to the protest, in their cars.


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What an embarrassing day for Mayor Jan Marx, along with Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal and Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider by being outright hypocrites to this protest.


Now, since these three individuals, along with their equally inept minions, are so concerned over the safety of crude oil shipped by rail through SLO and Santa Barbara counties, AND NOT TO BE HYPOCRITICAL OF THIS CAUSE, when are they equally going to make yard sign placards against the transportation of those other hazardous materials transported by rail and truck upon our highways as listed below?


The hazardous materials below, in part, are shipped by truck and rail through San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, to wit: Anhydrous Ammonia, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Ethylene Oxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Vinyl Chloride, Anhydrous Hydrofluoric Acid, Anhydrous Ammonia Metallic Sodium Chlorine, Liquefied Hydrocarbon Gas, Motor Fuel Anti-Knock Compound Vinyl Chloride, Fertilizer Ammoniating Solution, Chlorine, Anhydrous Ammonia, Sulfur Dioxide, Butadiene, Refrigerant or Dispersant Gases, Nitrosyl Chloride, Helium Hydrogen Oxygen, Nitrogen Fertilizer Solution, Ethyl Chloride.


How many more yard signs and pizzas will it take to protest the additional aforementioned hazardous materials being shipped through said counties? Can Mayor Marx, Salud Carbajal, and Helen Schneider spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E, or do they just need an excuse to eat pizza?


You will NEVER have 100 percent safety in any hazardous material transportation, sh*t happens, therefore you’re pissing in the Mississippi River to try in vain to change it’s direction, and seemingly to gain points for your re-elections.


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I think I understand them, you can’t move oil by train, truck or pipeline. That about cover it? In other words; no oil at all. Think how nice everything would be, clean air, water and land. Well, after 95% of the population dies off and we can go back to an agrarian civilization powered by horses.


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What you mean is the average citizen is not getting it. Without oil and gas we are going to rapidly degrade our lives and many will die because we loose the ability to have clothing, containers, medical equipment, computers and energy.


Try just one day like that and maybe just maybe our citizens would have been there to back down the protesters?


Well if you really want clean air it is not gas and oil that is creating the problem it is GeoEngineering and weather warfare that our own government is waging against us. They stripe the sky every day and cascade heavy metals of nano size particulate down on us.


Does anyone have a thinking brain and memory of 10 years ago our skies were blue, vibrant blue? Look up and look up geoengineering, solar radiation management as you and your family and plants and animals are all being harmed everyday….wake up


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This won’t change anyone’s mind but 2 years ago the refinery received county approval to expand their capacity. There was no great up roar then.


The refinery also currently has the capacity to off load rail car deliveries. This is a point misrepresented in the article and by those against the project. The real issue now is where are they going to park the rail cars from the trains that come into the county while they are waiting to off load them. It seems the default answer is next to busy tracks with heavy traffic. Why do you think there are a bunch of tanker cars near the Grove Beach Train Station.


It is a little late to try to send the broken train set back to the store.


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so a bunch of protesters against the oil trains choose to put their “stop oil train” on large PLASTIC bags – which are made of what??? OIL! you can’t make this stuff up.


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A correction. The commission will present their decision to approve or deny the permit to the Board of Supervisors where upon the Board will make the final decision to approve or deny the permit. The Board of Supervisor’s decision can therefore be appealed to the California Coastal Commission. Which might explain why Governor Brown, an oilists, is trying to get Mr. Lester, an independent commissioner, fired from CCC so Brown can replace him with a fellow oilists.


The Calfiornia Coastal Commission meeting on that Lester issue will be this Wednesday, Feb. 10th at the Morro Bay Inn.


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What a cadre of misguided individuals all being congregated together to show their outright ignorance to the transporting of oil by newer and safer rail tank cars with further operational safety protocols that are safer than trucks transporting the same oil along US 101 through our area. Even newer and safer oil cans are being built as we speak that far surpass the existing safer tank cars that are always heralded in past accidents.


I am sorry, but this photograph shows a bunch of outright hypocrites relative to the overall safety of SLO County that they are insidiously trying to uphold. Their leaders are as totally in the dark as these pictured regarding this fake initiative!, but at least they were fed pizzas to make it worthwhile for them to show up in an insidious manner, where the irony is, they were “transported” here by vehicle entities that use OIL derivatives! Can this group spell N-I-M-B-Y? What a joke.


The ignorant puppets being shown and controlled by the main puppet-masters that are against the railroads transporting oil cans by rail in our area is comical. I argued this point months ago with two individuals here on Cal Coast News that were connected with this project, and that had some of the weakest and inane arguments that we’ve seen. When they were confronted with empirical and logical facts, they disappeared from Cal Coast News as fast as Ted Kennedy did from his Chappaquiddick Bridge accident in the past.


I and many others have addressed this groups misconceived notions upon this topic and how outright hypocritical this group is if they are allegedly worried about the total safety of San Luis Obispo County in the threads below.


http://calcoastnews.com/2016/01/slo-county-staff-seeking-denial-of-phillips-66-rail-spur/


http://calcoastnews.com/2015/08/rail-spur-impacts-outweigh-any-benefits/


http://calcoastnews.com/2015/09/oil-by-rail-signifies-progress/


Can this comical anti Crude Oil Group spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E? Sure they can.


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Um….yeah…it’s called a bused-in rent-a-mob of leftist losers.


Who in the hell who works an honest job can afford to show up to shit like this in the middle of the week?


Nickel to a donut outside agitators and big leftist treehugger foundation money is behind this so-called “grassroots” local protest. Probably George Soros too.


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These anti-oil trains wackos truly are sad. It’s almost like a religion to them. It somehow gives meaning to their lives. Place one of those silly signs on one’s lawn and they become a member. They become special. They become better than their neighbors.


I hope the project is approved.


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You can see the same effect with Trump and Cruz and Clinton signs “They become special. They become better than their neighbors.” like it gives you a degree in economics.


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