Steve Early

"Refinery Town: Big Oil, Money, and the Remaining of an American City" by Steve Early tells the story of the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, CA. A group of local citizens, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, organized to combat the Big Oil interests in their city, and push a liberal agenda.

Overall, the book was well written and engaging. At times however, it could get a bit slow, and I found myself reading other books concurrently. I would suggest "Refinery Town" to anyone interested in civic engagement and the organization of grassroots progressive political movements.… (altro)

The title "Refinery Town" caught my attention right away. The early years of my career were spent in Port Arthur, Texas, a quintessential refinery town. However, decades later things have changed, and not all for the better. This book is about how a group of ordinary citizens rose up and fought "big oil and big money" to advance a progressive agenda in the city of Richmond, California. In fact, though, it is about much more than that. Studying Richmond is somewhat like studying a microcosm of our entire country. And understanding what went on in Richmond may, just possibly, help progressives accomplish things at the local level that, it has become clear, they have no chance of doing at the national level any time soon.

Chevron's huge oil refinery in Richmond was started in 1903, when the company was known (or was soon to be known) as Standard Oil of California. The author devotes a bit of the book to the town's history, one important factor being the massive changes brought about by World War II when Kaiser's big shipyards increased the number and changed the demographic of the population. Then he gets into the details of the story about the time of the "Great Recession." The refinery has just suffered a major fire which almost cost the lives of nineteen workers. The community's concern about safety inside the plant subsequently leads to concerns about other factors such as delivery of crude oil by train, environmental problems, income inequity and lack of training due to use of contractors instead of company employees, and Chevron's stance on climate change to cite a few examples. Needless to say, Chevron is not anxious to address these issues with the town.

Eventually, organizations are formed and others enlisted to fight many other battles. Home foreclosures, affordable housing, health care, crime and drugs, police relations with the community, cronyism and corruption in City Hall - in short, the problems that face the entire nation. Every step of the way, they were opposed by special interests. In every political campaign, they were outspent by orders of magnitude. The effect of the Supreme Court's misguided decision in Citizens United was almost overwhelming. Of course they did not win every battle but eventually progress was made.

The author warns early on that "out-of-towners may feel they've acquired more local knowledge than they want or need." I admit that I was feeling that way initially, but then I realized that it was only by getting into the nitty-gritty that the author could convey the tremendous effort required to get anything done. Just one example: a couple of members of the City Council deliberately created chaos in public meetings, then ran for reelection on the basis that the Council was dysfunctional. Yes, it takes time to read the details, but in the end it was rewarding. I hope that others facing the same problems will see that they are not alone. This is what it will take if progress is to be made.… (altro)