oil

Delaware, along with every other East coast state participated in the 4th Annual Hands Across the Sand on Saturday, May 18th.  We joined hands in solidarity with thousands of others in 18 states and 9 countries to say YES to clean energy and NO to more dirty fossil fuels and offshore drilling! Our Delaware-specific cause was offshore seismic testing.  The US Department of the Interior is currently deciding if seismic airgun testing should be allowed to search for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean from Delaware down to Florida.

May 8, 2013: the public hearing for the Delaware City Refinery's Marine Vapor Recovery project, also known as the rail-to-ship oil transfer project, would allow the PBF Delaware City Refinery to transfer up to 25,463,000 barrels of gasoline products and 16,425,000 barrels of crude oil per year from trains to ships for transport to the Paulsboro refinery owned by the same company.

The Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club applauds DNREC for proceeding with regulatory changes to bring Delaware in compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 revised National Ambient Air quality Standards for sulfur dioxide (SO₂) for a 1-hour average of 75 parts per billion (ppb).  These revised federal rules represent a dramatic decline in the level of SO₂, which have fallen to nearly half of the original 1-hour average of 140 ppb in the original EPA guidance in 1971.

Reposted from our friends at Delaware Audubon Society:

The photo [above] shows some of the piles of dead fish scraped from the Delaware City Refinery's cooling water intake and wastefully dumped in the nearby field.

Delawareans Facing Impacts of Climate Change Take to the Streets After Carper, Coons side with Big Oil on Symbolic Keystone XL Vote

March 28, 2013:  The State of Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has begun the early stages of amending regulations for low-emission and electric vehicles, with a stakeholder workgroup meeting in Dover. 

Notice of Violation Number: 2013-11738
Enforcement Action Served Date: 03/22/2013
Violator: Delaware City Refining Company
Violator Address:
Facility: Petroleum Refinery
Location Address: 4550 Wrangle Hill Road Delaware City, DE 19706
DNREC Contact: Foster, Paul Edward
DNREC Contact Phone:
Date Discovered: 03/11/2013
Date Corrected: 07/10/2012
Corrected: Yes

March 27, 2013: this morning was the most recent air sample collected by volunteers in our environmental justice partnership with the Delaware City Environmental Coalition's "Bucket Brigade." Pollution was noticeable in the town of Delaware City this morning, and by the look of the smoke stacks at the PBF Delaware City Refinery at sunrise, the wind was blowing emissions right over residential neighborhoods.

Wind was out of the Northwest, 8-10 miles per hour.

Delaware Sierra Club and Occupy Delaware joined for a "Move Your Money" action at TD Bank in Newark on March 22, 2014.  TD Bank has invested billions in TransCanada and tar sands!

Delaware is getting railroaded by tar sands, which are are not only more than 3x worse for our warming climate, but much more carcinogenic and polluting to refine. As you know, the last thing Delaware needs is more cancer-causing air pollution, including emissions from refining tar sands oil.

The Delaware City Refinery has begun to refine Canadian tar sands, and has recently expanded the train offloading capabilities to accept tar sands by train at the refinery.  Tar sands are considered to be the dirtiest petroleum on earth, and emit 3x the greenhouse gases of conventional oil.

With the ability to unload only 100 rail cars at a time, there is a backup waiting to enter the refinery.  Norfolk Southern railroad has begun storing insulated and heated rail cars at the former Chrysler Assembly Plant in Newark, right next to a residential neighborhood and the UD campus.