Big West of California, LLC, a subsidiary of Flying J Inc., today announced the release of the Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report (RDEIR) for its Clean Fuels Project by the Kern County Planning Department. The release of the RDEIR for circulation is an important milestone in the project's approvals process. It marks the beginning of a forty-five day comment period during which project plans, impacts, and mitigation programs, as described in the RDEIR, will be subject to public review and comment.
"Big West's Clean Fuels Project will have tremendous benefits for our company, Kern County and the state of California," said Big West's Vice President of Refining, Gene Cotten. "It will produce an additional 1.2 million gallons of clean gasoline and diesel every day at a time when the state's need for additional fuel supplies is critical. It will also make Big West one of the cleanest, lowest emissions refineries in the nation. We are hopeful that the project will be approved once the intensive public review and multi-agency permitting process is complete."
The RDEIR includes in-depth discussions of 12 issue areas, including aesthetics, air quality, biology, materials, cultural resources, noise impacts, geology, traffic and transportation, environmental mitigation, public services and utilities, land use, and population and housing. The RDEIR is available for public review at the Kern County Planning Department. As part of the public review process, the county will hold public hearings, although these dates have not yet been announced. The public comment period will end on August 11, 2008.
"Over the last few months we've communicated the many benefits of the Clean Fuels Project to our neighbors in Kern County and throughout the region," said Bill Chadick, Director of Health, Safety & Environment for Big West. "We are grateful for the strong and widespread support the project has received from thousands of individuals and organizations. We look forward to a time when the many benefits this project was designed to produce become a reality."
The Clean Fuels Project
The Clean Fuels Project will update operations at Big West, permitting the refinery to increase the production of clean gasoline and diesel by 65% without increasing the amount of crude oil processed. This will equal an additional 1.2 million gallons of clean fuels every day, meeting 4% of California's gasoline needs and 12% of its diesel needs. With demand for fuels in California rapidly outstripping supply from in-state refineries, California is now importing gasoline from foreign sources. Big West wants to help bridge this dramatically growing gap by improving the refinery's ability to turn locally produced crude oil into finished diesel and gasoline, using the cleanest available technologies and distributing the end product locally.
In addition to modernizing the refinery and increasing the output of clean fuels, the Clean Fuels Project will provide significant benefits for Kern County. It will create over 100 new, permanent high-paying jobs - jobs that pay over $70,000 a year - and employ up 1,200 workers during the two-year construction phase. Construction activities are expected to pump more than $100 million into the local economy each year. The refinery's property taxes will more than double, creating new revenues to improve county schools, roads and public safety programs. Big West will also create two environmental protection funds, a $5 million fund to reduce global warming gases at the refinery, and a $1 million fund to combat greenhouse gases in the community. An innovative part of the environmental effort will include the planting of 1,000 trees on and near the refinery.
The Clean Fuels Project is undergoing a rigorous environmental review process at the local, regional, state and federal levels. The process requires a Prevention of Significant Deterioration permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an air permit from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, and a conditional use permit from Kern County. The permits will require the installation of the "Best Available Control Technology" and "Lowest Achievable Emission Rate."
Big West retained leading industry consultants and engineers to design every aspect of the project with the safest and best available control technologies. In addition, site-specific mitigation identified in the RDEIR will reduce many of the potentially significant adverse impacts to less than significant levels.
Further information about the Clean Fuels Project can be found at www.BigWestCA.com
About Big West
Big West of California, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flying J Inc. The refinery processes 70,000 barrels of locally produced crude oil every day, which equals about 2.2% of California's total gasoline supply, and about 6% of the state's diesel fuel supply. The refinery is supplied by local California crude oils produced in the San Joaquin Valley and the Los Angeles Basin and primarily markets finished motor fuel products in the Bakersfield and Fresno areas. The refinery is also a large supplier of gas oil products to other refiners. Big West has approximately 200 employees and 150 part-time contractors.
About Flying J Inc.
Flying J Inc. is a privately held Ogden, Utah, based corporation with 2006 sales exceeding $13 billion. This fully integrated oil company is the largest retail distributor of diesel fuel in North America and employs over 16,000 people across the U.S. and Canada through its interstate operations, transportation, refining and supply, exploration and production, financial services and communications divisions. For additional information, visit www.flyingj.com.
