California Voice: State shouldn’t let oil companies rewrite refinery safety rules
On Jan. 15, regulators held a public hearing at the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meeting in Sacramento on changes to California’s Process Safety Management regulations, an issue with life-or-death consequences for workers and nearby communities.
These regulations exist to keep people safe. After the 2012 Chevron refinery explosion in Richmond sent a massive fireball into the sky and sent thousands of residents to seek medical help, California strengthened its refinery safety rules.
The reforms established crucial safeguards: rigorous oversight of hazardous materials and processes; common-sense standards ensuring meaningful worker participation in safety processes and engineering reviews; and authority for workers to stop unsafe operations.
We represent communities living next to refineries and the workers who operate them. Together, we are sounding the alarm — California must not allow oil billionaires and their lobbyists to rewrite refinery safety rules.
Recent disasters at refineries across California — including major fires and explosions in Martinez, Benicia and El Segundo in 2025 alone — show that the risks remain serious and urgent.
As oil executives disinvest from maintenance at aging refineries, the risk of deadly disasters increases, making these regulations more important than ever.
Refinery disasters don’t just affect workers and local communities. They impact Californians across the state when we fill up our tanks. Major accidents often disrupt fuel supplies, driving up gasoline prices.
The proposed OSHA changes stem from a settlement between state regulators and oil industry lobbyists — a secret deal crafted behind closed doors, excluding workers and frontline communities. The changes would erode critical safety protections and give oil companies more control over the rules meant to hold them accountable.
The most dangerous change targets a crucial aspect of refinery safety, employee participation.
The proposal would allow oil executives to handpick workers to participate in developing safety plans and conducting critical safety reviews. In practice, that means a worker who raises concerns about corroded pipes or unsafe chemical levels could be replaced with someone more willing to stay silent.
This defies common sense. Refinery workers are responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of these facilities.
They know which metals are used in each process and how much acid or additives can be used. They know which chemicals corrode and rip holes through pipes. Their knowledge is essential to preventing disasters.
Other revisions would reduce oversight of hazardous chemicals, narrowing what companies are required to analyze and fix.
These dangerous and carcinogenic substances don’t disappear just because we decide to look the other way. They remain on-site, threatening workers and surrounding neighborhoods.
Communities like Richmond and Carson are already deeply impacted by day-to-day refinery pollution. They experience elevated rates of asthma, cancer and other chronic illnesses. Explosions and toxic accidents exacerbate these risks.
The existing safety rules were built with worker input for a reason. Refinery workers want safe jobs. Refineries are inherently hazardous, and a single failure can mean severe injury or death. Workers must be able to select their own representatives who understand refining processes, prioritize environmental health and safety and who will not cave to corporate pressure.
Luckily, this deal can still be stopped. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s regulators should reject these industry-driven rollbacks and work openly with workers and residents.
The future of safety at California’s refineries should be defined by public voices — not oil billionaires and their lobbyists.
Marie Choi is strategy director at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. Nick Plurkowski is president of United Steelworkers Local 5, representing workers at three Bay Area refineries. Distributed by CalMatters.org.