Two Agencies Find No Safety or Regulatory Violations by Valero in May 5 PG&E Power Outage
Both California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) and the Solano County Environmental Health Division have conducted extensive investigations and cleared Valero of any safety or regulatory violations during PG&E’s May 5 power outage that caused the refinery to shut down.

"A second agency has ruled that Valero [Refining Company, California] did not violate any regulations in connection with the May 5 power outage … The Solano County Environmental Health Division could not find any safety or regulatory deficiencies on the part of Valero, according to Terry Schmidtbauer, assistant director of resource management.

“We looked at their processes — did they have safety plans in place, were they handling the chemicals properly? Did they report their emissions, did they have the proper plans in place to minimize the releases?” Schmidtbauer said. Schmidtbauer’s team found that Valero had followed all protocol …

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health underwent its own probe in May and also didn’t issue any violations. The event occurred after PG&E shut down two main power feeds to the refinery, which initiated emergency flaring …."

As the findings from both agencies affirm, Valero is committed to the safety of the surrounding community and its workers. In addition to maintaining the Cal/OSHA VPP Star Site designation since 2006 and in September receiving re-certification for going above and beyond Cal/OSHA safety standards, the Refinery is subject to California’s recently adopted Process Safety Management (PSM) and California Accidental Release Prevention Program (CalARP) regulations. These are the most stringent safety standards for refinery operations in the nation.
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