Last year, a coalition of residents, community organizations, unions, and workers in the refinery town of Richmond, California, took on the city’s biggest polluter — the Chevron Richmond Refinery — with a historic refinery tax measure. The Polluters Pay measure was led by environmental justice groups Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Action and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) Action, alongside the city workers’ union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021, with the support of local progressive council members.
The tax measure would have brought in $60–90 million each year for the City of Richmond to pay for essential city services, clean up toxic sites, and prepare for future economic transition costs in anticipation of the projected decline in refinery product demand.
Ultimately, the strength of local organizing forced Chevron’s hand into settling early before the measure could go to the ballot.
There are 131 other refineries across the United States. Many of these refineries, like Chevron, have been profiting and polluting for decades. Meanwhile, people living in the surrounding communities face high rates of asthma, sickness, and death. Every refinery community will face the tremendous transition costs associated with refinery closure or bankruptcy. It’s time to make these polluters pay.
We’re excited to share our campaign playbook: “How Richmond Made Polluters Pay” — documenting the Richmond coalition’s lessons learned and recommendations for other communities near extractive industries to build a ballot measure campaign. We hope that some of the lessons learned from our campaign will be helpful to other refinery communities.
Inside How Richmond Made Polluters Pay: Preparing for a Future Beyond Oil you will find:
- History of the Chevron refinery in Richmond, including political influence in the city
- Legacy of progressive Richmond organizing
- Legal considerations when running a ballot tax measure
- Communications and media strategy
- Sample timelines for running a ballot measure campaign
- Lessons learned and recommendations
- Challenges, discoveries and successes
Fill out the form below to download the playbook today — and stay tuned for more soon from our coalition!