My name is Fatima Iqbal-Zubair and I am a member of Communities
for a Better Environment, resident of South central LA, former
teacher in Watts, current member of the executive board of
the California Democratic Party, and Southern California Vice
Chair of the Progressive Caucus.
In my experience, living in a district with a large
concentration of refineries and oil drilling has negatively
impacted my family, my son, my students by increasing our health
issues and lowering our life expectancies. It is a clear exhibition
of environmental racism and we need to transition away from our
dependence on oil for this reason.
CalEnviroScreen mapping shows that most census tracts
surrounding refineries are communities of color, low-income, and
some of the highest percentile exposures to Toxic Releases in the
state. We urge you to safeguard generations living in Wilmington,
Southeast Los Angeles and throughout California from fossil fuel
pollution and climate disaster.
CARB has failed to recognize that its own plan for
transportation means we won’t need refineries by 2045 in
California. It only makes sense for CARB to create a plan for
gradual phase-out of refineries by 2045 throughout California so
that we can rebuild clean healthy communities.
Every California refinery studied during a South Coast District
regulation had limited space available to add new pollution
controls for NOx. But now the oil industry pretends it can add lots
of carbon capture equipment and make climate impacts go away.
Trying to force widespread carbon capture equipment into refineries
increases hazards. And Carbon Capture is a false solution that will
only delay the transition away from fossil fuel production. The
money spent on carbon capture and sequestration creates new
dangers, and would be much better spent investing in a phase out of
fossil fuel operations including refineries before 2045.
By investing in carbon capture at refineries, CARB is padding
the profits of big oil and guaranteeing that refineries continue to
operate for years to come while greenwashing their operations.
We demand better- resources and money invested in a just
transtion away from oil operations towards renewable energey, and a
clean future.
Thank you,
Fatima Iqbal-Zubair