Valero Corp. (Photo: investorvalero.com)
Valero Announces it Will Shut Down Benicia Refinery April 2026
This latest hit comes after Chevron Oil Company announced move to Houston, and Phillips 66 will shut down Los Angeles refinery by October 2025
By Katy Grimes, April 16, 2025 12:39 pm
California Democrats’ war on the oil and gas industry is working, but not for the people.
In another blow to California’s oil and gas industry, and the state’s fuel; supply, Valero Energy Corporation announced Wednesday it will shut down its Benicia Refinery in April 2026.
This latest hit comes after Chevron Oil Company announced in August their corporate relocation to Houston Texas from the Bay Area, and Phillips 66 announced that its Los Angeles refinery will shut down by October 2025.
“Valero’s announcement that it will shut down its Benicia refinery in April 2026 is yet another blow to California’s already fragile fuel supply system,” the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance said. “The decision reflects the growing impact of California’s increasingly aggressive energy policies, which have made it more difficult for in-state refineries to continue operating. As a result, this closure will leave the state with just seven remaining in-state refineries capable of producing California’s uniquely formulated gasoline—a dangerously low number for a state of nearly 40 million residents.”
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher weighed in on X: “Good morning CA: another gas refinery is closing and our prices will shoot up even more! Totally predictable and you can thank @GavinNewsom and the Democratic politicians for their flawed policies.”
Valero’s notice continues:
“The Valero Refining Company-California has submitted notice to the California Energy Commission of its current intent to idle, restructure, or cease refining operations at Valero’s Benicia Refinery by the end of April 2026. Valero continues to evaluate strategic alternatives for its remaining operations in California. “We understand the impact that this may have on our employees, business partners, and community, and will continue to work with them through this period,” said Lane Riggs, Chairman, CEO and President of Valero.
In connection with the evaluation of strategic alternatives for Valero’s operations in California, a combined pre-tax impairment charge of $1.1 billion was recorded for the Benicia and Wilmington refineries, and is expected to be treated as a special item and excluded from first quarter 2025 adjusted earnings. Also included in this amount is the recognition of expected asset retirement obligations of $337 million as of March 31, 2025.
The oil and gas industry has taken one political hit after another with California’s Democrat Governor and Democrat supermajority in the State Legislature.
Gov. Newsom claims that the state’s highest-in-the-nation gas taxes and prices are not what cause dramatically spiking gas/oil prices but because of price gouging by the oil industry. In May 2024, Newsom even signed a gas price gouging law into place.
The California Energy Commission disagreed with the governor at the time, showing that gas price spikes occurred in the last few years because of refineries temporally going out of commission because not enough oil was getting to them.
But even as California’s own Chevron Oil Company announced in August their corporate relocation to Houston Texas from the Bay Area, where the company has been based since 1879, Newsom was pushing legislation which would clearly result in even higher gas prices at the pump? Again?
Chevron is just the latest big business to flee the Golden State. Notably, Chevron’s President Andy Walz said in a letter to the Legislature that of the 36 states in which they work, only California has the highest gas prices.
California Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced a bill in February to hold “Big Oil” responsible for natural disasters in California. You read that right – Senator Wiener is blaming the oil and gas industry for natural disasters, or disasters that should have been mitigated by the State of California.
Wiener’s SB 222 stalled in the Judiciary Committee this month, but was allowed reconsideration and will be heard again.
Gov. Newsom has been agitating for some time against “Big Oil” and their “windfall profits,” but always leaves out his and Democrats’ important role in escalating oil and gas prices in California through regulations, surcharges, “clean-air” and “low carbon” programs, cap and trade and more schemes.
Gov. Newsom signed a package of “sweeping legislation” in September 2022 to achieve statewide carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2045, by establishing an 85% emissions reduction target, capping oil wells, slowing oil and gas permitting, making it impossible to increase refining capacity, and entirely phasing out oil and gas starting in two years.
That “sweeping set of laws” Newsom touted was 40 new climate change bills regulating California businesses and its people.
As oil expert Dave Noerr told the Globe last year, “The growing difference between the price of crude oil and the retail cost of gas and diesel as well as the additional cost Californians pay compared to every bordering state and the rest of the U.S. is:
- The Sacramento surcharge
- The cost of California
- The growing of Government
- The Low Carbon Fuel Standard
- The Cap and Trade Program
- Vapor recycling requirements
- Data collection
- Air quality mandated equipment replacements”
Noerr added, “So California, the fact of the matter is, you are paying the same or less for the crude oil contained in a gallon of gas or diesel. You are just paying a lot more for government.”
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This is going to have implications beyond just California. Nevada and Arizona should sue the state for the damage the Dems have done to the energy supply for their states.
Trump must immediately and temporarily nationalize the Valero and Phillips refineries in the interest of national security.
Once these critical and essential infrastructural entities dismantled they will never return.
Newson has
It will raise prices to point that we will be back to old fashioned ration cards, odd and even gas days, plus EBT gas cards for nearly our poor 30%. Due to virtually no media the democrats maneuver around in the dark like rats.
Pretty soon we will be bootlegging it in from neighboring free states.
Thank you, California Democrats… you and your unelected lackeys in unelected roles (CARB, etc.) have COMPLETELY screwed up the California economy in your pursuit of your green-grift fantasy economy…
NOW do we want to recall Newsom???
You can’t beat Newsom and the Democrats for running businesses out of the state. Extra props for putting the state on the verge of an energy crisis in the process. Democrats motto, “Dismantling California one refinery at a time”.
Cody Balmer, the Penn guber’s mansion arsonist, reportedly stopped his support for President Biden over rising fuel prices.
Energy policies are creating opposition from the same sectors from which the Democrat leftist bloc in Sacramento are dependent.
Gov. Gavin “Hair-gel Hitler” Newsom and the criminal Democrat thug mafia that controls California seem to be intentionally driving the oil and gas industry out of the state? They’re probably hoping that petroleum products will be so expensive and in such short supply that many Californians will have switch to EVs (made by Newsom’s CCP cronies in China) or be forced to ride dangerous public transit where criminals and mentally ill homeless are allowed free reign by Democrats?
As one of the few still living who participated in the construction and commissioning of the Benicia refinery, I am not at all surprised. California’s politicians want to force compliance with their all renewable objectives even though the technology is not available at scale; certainly not in their mandated time frame. California is headed to disaster. Perhaps better to have it occur now when recovery might be feasible than further in the future when recovery might not be technically or financially possible.
Good riddance. Tell Valero to clean-up their pollution San Francisco Bay, before they leave. The taxpayer should not have clean-up after them.
Earl,
You just provided proof that stüpid people still exist!
Please share your “make believe” sources for the “fabricated” claims that you “made up.”
Please Earl tell me you were on board for saving the spotted owl, running big lumber out of California which ultimately lead to unprecedented fires and loss of life.
That is the type of un-common sense that has lead to the tarnishment on the Golden State.
@Earl Richards
Having lived in the Bay Area for many decades I immediately recognized what you wrote for what it was. Made up “facts”. Lies.
I’ve been hearing these kind of lies for decade but yet when you actually go digging for hard data to back up any of these statements its always leads back to some “study”. Done by some math illiterates with eco degrees. Usually working for some eco NGO full of stupid rich white kids. Or even worse, CARB, CalEPA “studies”. Which are even more littered with very basic math and science errors. The certainty of any conclusions stated never every match the data provided. Not even close. In fact most of these studies would fail Stats 101.
The same with the $82M fine of the Benicia plant by CARB. When you dig through the data it turned out that any “toxins” would not have escaped the perimeter of the plant, were so infrequent, and were always the result of safety device tripping. Almost all “infractions” were purely procedural. Thats it.
And who was the $82M fine given to? A bunch of eco / community NGO’s. Pure fraud.
So Valero are out. Joining Phillips. Which if you look at the current state oil refining capacity means that the state no longer has any spare capacity. So next time there ia any problem at the few remaining refineries in the state. Just watch the long gas lines within a few days. And the deliver trucks (even to Whole Food) stop soon after.
Of course the the eco crazies dont care. They never care about consequences. Not only stupid but maliciously sanctimonious. a situation they caused will be all “Big Oils” fault. A mythical beast that has not existed since the 1970’s. 50 years ago.
The one upside is that as the very oil rich state of California joins the very oil rich state of Venezuela as a somewhere with huge oil reserves but no gas the days of the CARB dictatorships may be numbered. And CARB’s 50 year catastrophic incompetence comes to an end.
Their/They/Them
Telling projection, indeed.
So I guess California Legislators are determined to make sure the state go electric despite the lack of infrastructure. SMH…
So I guess California is determined to go all electric by whatever year… this is just such BS.. Way to go elected officials…SMH