Apparently These #BlackLives Don't Matter -- August 10, 2020

A reader caught this story. I would have missed it. Thank you.

Earlier this month, it was noted that Marathon would be closing two refineries, including its fourth-largest refinery which happens to be located in the San Francisco Bay area. We posted that story here. 

The first think I thought of was the number of good-paying jobs that would be lost. I didn't have time to write about it nor could I have written anything as good as the article as IceAgeNow. Link here.

Marathon Petroleum recently announced it will “indefinitely idle” its Martinez Refinery. The decision will remove hundreds of jobs, billions of dollars, and nearly 7 million gallons of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum liquids per day from the energy-hungry California economy. 

It will also send fuel prices even higher for minority and other poor families that already pay by far the highest gasoline prices in the continental United States: $1.32 more per gallon of regular than in Louisiana and Texas. California’s green and political interests don’t want drilling or fracking, pipelines, or nuclear, coal or hydroelectric power plants – or mining for the materials needed to manufacture electric cars. They prefer to have that work done somewhere else, and just import the energy, cars and consumer goods. 

They’ve long wanted a totally electric vehicle (EV) fleet, which they claim would be clean, ethical, climate-friendly and sustainable. Of course, those labels hold up only so long as they look solely at activities and emissions within California state boundaries – and not where the mining, manufacturing and electricity generation take place. That kind of “life cycle” analysis would totally disrupt their claims.

I had forgotten about higher costs for those who can least afford it and I would argue, those lives matter, also.

It's a long article, but a great article. It's such a great article, I will archive it so it's not lost.

Unfortunately, the writer is preaching to the choir.