Frances Burke urged the Planning Commission not to base their future on a dinosaur industry.
Good Evening, My name is Frances Burke I am from the City of Davis in Yolo County.
As has been brought to your attention, Davis is a uprail community . Oil mega trains headed to the Valero refinery will pass through our downtown and past my house.. I live in a UC Davis housing community and within 200 feet of the Union Pacific rail tracks. I can see and hear trains passing by all day and all night. With the Valero refinery and the crude oil trains it will bring, I will feel, smell, and taste the additional fumes and breath the additional particulate matter from the increased daily trains. I will hear and feel the increased train traffic every time they signal at a crossing, and I am a potential victim of a deadly accident, explosion or train derailment.
I have followed this project closely and at every point available, I have submitted my concerns and made comments before this Commission . The FEIR still fails to address the impacts of the project and the FEIR still fails to adequately respond to our letter’s . It has offered us no mitigation for impacts from the increased train traffic to the Valero Refinery. The railroads claim federal preemption and the FEIR simply advised us to contact our congressional representative. My only conclusion is that uprail communities are considered collateral damage . Your decision to approve or disapprove this project has consequences for millions of Californians putting our lives, property, and health at risk .
Fossil fuels are a dinosour. and I ask the commission not to build their future on a dying industry Please vote NO on the FEIR and NO on the Valero Refinery project. It has failed to adequately address or offer mitigation for the project impacts for everyone from the state line to the Benicia City limits.
Thank you for your time.
Frances Burke
Yolano Climate Action Central 