How can communities plan for an economy beyond fossil fuels? What are the pathways to an economy that is not only free of fossil fuels but also provides a good life for all its members?
We offer you this Community Belonging and Climate Futures series - a sharing of community voices, data, policy ideas, frameworks for planning and strategy, and other creations coming out of a participatory research and action process in Richmond, California. We’ve listened, now we’re sharing videos, art, a podcast and short written pieces with the hope to contribute to reflection and action toward a future climate of belonging and justice.
Receive a monthly email with the resources we are publishing by signing up here: Community Belonging and Climate Futures Newsletter.
Send us your thoughts and questions by emailing us at climatefutures@berkeley.edu.
Community Belonging and Climate Futures
“For starters, get policies and procedures to get the soil of the earth cleaned up because 100 years of being on top of that, you cannot tell me that nothing has seeped into the soil, you know, into the water system. They need to be responsible for cleaning that up. You know, we need to be responsible as a city, our dignitaries and put stuff in place so that when that time does come, it can't come back on us.” - Cat, Richmond resident
Planning ahead for an economy without fossil fuels begins with analyses like Cat’s, asking how our lives would change if the fossil fuel industry were to shut down? What happens to a city when the fossil fuel industry shuts down local operations? How can communities prepare and plan for the effects on city and school funding, jobs, interconnected businesses, lasting health effects and leftover toxic chemicals in the land and water? What possibilities for health, social equity and belonging, and thriving neighborhoods are created when communities plan for this future scenario? What would an economy look like if all people and ecologies could fully belong and thrive? Climate change and the Covid pandemic have brought these questions to the foreground like never before, as they signaled that the living systems we rely on are in crisis, and the social systems we rely on can fracture suddenly.What does this mean for the many cities around the US and the world that live with fossil fuel industries? In Richmond, CA, the Chevron refinery has been around as long as the city itself and has deeply embedded itself and impacted the health, economy, political institutions, and other parts of the local community. In the words of Richmond youth organizer Lizbeth (listen to audio), “Chevron impacts me personally. I know that there's a lot of asthma that runs in my family and I know cancer also runs in my family. All of these respiratory illnesses. I'm scared. What if one day I develop them just because of the air that I'm breathing? I also get scared because the climate crisis is in one way or another going to keep impacting everyone and Chevron is contributing to this crisis.”
What would an economy look like if all people and ecologies could fully belong and thrive?
Chevron has periodically threatened to shut down its refinery and move when community leaders have called for more effective protections of public health, less harm to the climate, and fair tax payments. Some community leaders impacted by the high rates of asthma, cancer, heart disease and other health problems have dreamed of the day when the smoke stacks would cease. Yet an actual closure seemed far off. The refinery is the second largest on the West Coast and processes over 10 million gallons of crude oil on average each day.
Then came the year 2020. A year when unprecedented wildfires in California burned 4 million acres of land, over 10,000 buildings and took 33 lives. Thick smoke covered much of the state for days, affecting the respiratory health of millions, particularly those without shelter and without the option of working from home. In fenceline communities like Richmond, this amounted to a triple whammy of toxic air and health problems. The ongoing air pollution from the refinery and other sources combined with the smoke from wildfires afflicted people who already have higher rates of existing health problems like asthma and heart disease. Like other low-income communities, Richmond also had a disproportionate number of people working in jobs considered essential, so workers didn’t have as much freedom to shelter in place.
An Unplanned Transition?
Meanwhile the price of oil plummeted and two other refineries in the region were shut down: the Marathon refinery in Martinez and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo. What wasn't obvious was that even prior to the pandemic, California's refineries had been in financial decline. With the harm of the climate crisis more apparent than ever, and the oil industry in flux, public conversations about a transition away from fossil fuels have reached a new level. Two years later the price of oil has skyrocketed, Chevron is reporting record profits, and some political leaders are advocating for boosting oil production. Yet the climate crisis has only worsened and scientists are advising immediate reductions of fossil fuel use globally, and greater action for California to meet its climate goals.
In fact, closing refineries is inevitable if California is to meet its goals for addressing the climate crisis. A recent study found that California must begin reducing oil refining at a rate of about 3 percent per year starting now in order to be on a path to meet 2033 climate stabilization goals. The current moment has shown that it is imperative to plan for this transition.
Closing refineries is inevitable if California is to meet its goals for addressing the climate crisis.
But 2020 also revealed that effective planning for such a transition was missing. For their part, Chevron and other oil corporations had been denying the science on climate change for around 40 years, and Chevron has barely reduced its refinery’s total greenhouse gasses in the last decade. The closure of refineries exposed a lack of readiness at every level of government, even though the refineries comprise a major part of tax revenue, regional jobs, and legacy of environmental pollution and harm to public health.
Community Visions
Community groups and activists have stepped up to provide visions and strategies for planning a transition away from fossil fuels. Heavily impacted communities have been ringing this alarm for decades. In an interview with the Richmond Listening Project, TJ Sykes, a Richmond native, artist, and entrepreneur, shared (listen to audio): “So I think if it was like in a perfect world, it (Chevron) would not be in operation and then would make efforts to support the community, support the environment, use the resources that they have to funnel money into these low-income communities that have been poverty-stricken with crime rates and high asthma rates. We all need some resources put into natural healing medicines and the restoration of our soil and water.” Another resident interviewed, Keri, Richmond resident, proposes: “We need to have a plan to replace the jobs and tax revenue. All the employees that work there need to be offered a transition into something else.”
This is the call that the Community Belonging and Climate Futures Project responds to. This is a collaboration between the Othering and Belonging Institute, Richmond Listening Project of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment, Our Power Coalition, and many individual community leaders. Together, we are co-creating a participatory research and planning process for community members to define a vision that could orient this transition, and illuminate pathways and prepare the city for reaching that vision. Core questions guiding this work are:
- Who needs to be at the decision-making table? Whose voices will be intentionally centered?
- How will community members imagine, organize, and plan for the future economy?
- What research and analysis must be done?
- What is the role of local government and what policies and public investments will be needed?
- What is the role of fossil fuel corporations and what actions and contributions are needed from them?
Richmond community leaders are not the first or only ones to be doing this work, there is a brilliant yet often unknown legacy to build on. Tony Mazzocchi, a union organizer who is credited with coining the term “Just Transition,” wrote in 1993, “There is a Superfund for dirt. There ought to be one for workers.” The Superfund is a federal program that pays for the clean up of heavily contaminated land that has been abandoned by industry. No such fund exists for the workers or nearby residents who lose work and suffer the lasting effects on their health. In years since, strategies for a just transition have been crafted by the Climate Justice Alliance, Labor Network for Sustainability, Movement Generation, and many other environmental justice groups, scholars and advocates.
Community groups and activists have stepped up to provide visions and strategies for planning a transition away from fossil fuels.
Over the coming months, we will share videos, data, podcast episodes, and other expressions of the ideas, visions, and strategies coming out of this work. We offer this work to you and invite your contributions and reflections.
Receive a monthly email with the resources we are publishing by signing up here: Community Belonging and Climate Futures Newsletter.
Send us your thoughts and questions by emailing us at climatefutures@berkeley.edu.
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