Front Page  »  

Phillips 66 planning demolition, remediation of Nipomo refinery

May 3, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

Phillips 66 shut down its refinery in Nipomo in January and then applied for permits in March to demolish the facility and restore the land.

San Luis Obispo County plans to host multiple public scoping meetings in May. A draft environmental impact report (EIR) is slated to be completed in 2023, with a final EIR finished in 2024.

For more than 60 years, the 1,780-acre Santa Maria Refinery next to Highway 1 on the Nipomo Mesa processed crude oil. Only about 200 acres was used for refinery purposes. The remaining approximately 1,600 acres is grazed by cattle, held as open space or used as a preservation area for wildlife in the Nipomo Dunes.

Three years ago, Phillips 66 first announced plans to shutter the Nipomo refinery.

Then in May 2022, Phillips 66 made a decision to convert its San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, Calif. into one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities, an action related to the shutdown of the refinery in Nipomo. The Rodeo facility will no longer process crude oil and instead use waste oils, fats, greases and vegetable oils to produce an initial 800 million gallons per year of renewable transportation fuels, including renewable diesel, renewable gasoline and sustainable aviation fuel.

Phillips 66 expects the remediation process to take several years.


Loading...
Subjects:
Related:


6 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Here’s a novel idea. Plant loads of trees there…they are the best means of blocking the particulate that the APCD is killing people downwind. It would save the APCD lots if money and they need that because they have lost another deep pocket.


0

Wow, It is good to hear about the changes Phillips 66 is doing, moving forward with renewable transportation fuel. Awesome!


-35

Excellent news! After all the controversy about pipelines and rail spurs to bring oil to and from this facility and the associated dangers, that will all soon be a distant memory.


-34

When you talk about “distant memory” are you talking about gasoline?


0

Great! Only the rich can buy fuel or their electric cars and thievery will increase to levels of government. We proudly will pay more to subsidize the less diligent.


20

Ah yes, only on this site would the closing of a noxious polluting refinery that none of the local residents wanted in their neighborhood get so many downvotes. Anything that could possibly be good for the environment must be a liberal lefty idea that must be strongly opposed, right?


JThomas, I was talking about this refinery, there are plenty of others that can produce gasoline. But actually yes the day when we no longer need gasoline will be a great day.


Estrada, your paranoia is amusing. Nowhere in the article did it say that this closing will increase the cost or availability of fuel. Exactly how does a private company deciding to close a facility equal “thievery will increase to levels of government” (whatever that means)


0