Valero Benicia Refinery. (Photo: Valero.com)
The Pride of Benicia: The 57-Year Legacy of a Refinery and Its People
What we lost was more than a refinery
By Mike Ariza, June 23, 2026 4:26 pm
When people discuss the closure of the Valero Benicia Refinery, the conversation usually centers on fuel production, energy policy, and economics.
But what we lost was more than a refinery. For 57 years, the Benicia Refinery was a source of opportunity, pride, and purpose for thousands of families. It was where parents earned the wages that bought first homes, paid for college educations, and created better lives for their children. It was where lifelong friendships were formed, skills were mastered, and a culture of service and excellence was built one shift at a time.
Originally constructed in 1968, the refinery was unique from the beginning. Even its appearance reflected a commitment to the community. The facility was painted in shades of green and gold so it would blend into the surrounding hills rather than dominate the landscape.
But the refinery’s true distinction was never its color. It was its people.
Workers at Benicia received training unlike almost anywhere else in the industry. Operators were cross trained across multiple refinery units and developed advanced expertise in operations, maintenance, instrumentation, electrical systems, welding, and emergency response. The refinery fostered a culture where learning never stopped and where helping one another was simply part of the job.
Safety was more than a requirement—it was a shared responsibility. Employees served as EMTs, firefighters, first responders, and mentors. The refinery supported local fire departments, provided training and equipment, and worked closely with military and emergency response organizations throughout the region.
The commitment to community extended far beyond the refinery gates. Through charitable giving, volunteer service, and civic involvement, Valero employees and the company invested millions of dollars and tens of thousands of volunteer hours into local schools, food banks, housing projects, environmental programs, and nonprofit organizations.
My own family is part of that story. When my father was hired in 1976, his refinery job helped our family purchase its first new car and first home. Thousands of families throughout Solano County have similar stories. The refinery did not simply produce fuel. It produced opportunity.
What we lost was more than a refinery.
We lost a place where generations of workers took pride in doing difficult jobs well. We lost a place where coworkers became family, where people rushed to help before they were asked, and where excellence was not a slogan but a daily expectation.
A former coworker recently summed it up best:
“We had strong ethical values and the best training anywhere. Anyone who left Benicia became a superstar at another facility because of what they learned there.”
That legacy belongs to the operators, mechanics, firefighters, engineers, supervisors, and support staff who dedicated their careers to making Benicia exceptional. Their skill, professionalism, and commitment earned the respect of an entire industry.
In the end, what made Benicia special was not the equipment, the pipes, or the towers. It was the people. Only in Benicia were operators fully cross-trained across refinery systems, creating a workforce capable of stepping in wherever needed, solving problems quickly, and protecting one another. That culture of trust, accountability, and expertise helped make Valero Benicia one of the safest, most efficient, and most effective refineries in the world.
And while the refinery may be gone, the legacy of the people who built it, protected it, and made it shine will endure for generations.
- The Pride of Benicia: The 57-Year Legacy of a Refinery and Its People - June 23, 2026
- California’s State of Emergency for Transportation Fuels - May 30, 2026
- Understanding California Refineries: The ‘Turnaround’ - May 4, 2026
1968 is a time when California was creating jobs, and a wonderful lifestyle for its citizens. Dams were being built so we would have water. Roads were being built so we could go places. Power plants were being built so we had plenty of electricity. Single family houses were being built to make the American Dream come true. Refineries were being built so we would have fuel and oil products.
Then the Democrats took over, and trashed this state.
I, a life-long FDR Democrat and native San Franciscan, want to be mad at you for blaming the Democrats for California’s horrible decline, but I can’t, because you are absolutely correct. Did you know that Rob Bonta is now suing the Federal Government because they are wisely trying to eliminate totally unnecessary CARB? Yes, these Berkeley Hippie Democrats have indeed destroyed California, Illinois, every place they have become entrenched. Say what you want about Saint Ronnie, today’s Democrats are just as bad. Different, but just as bad.
I’m more worried about you. Hitting your dumb self in the face all your life.
All refineries need to go – short sighted profit making machines for the oil and gas industries is all they are – stop glorifying a huge mistake. Sustainable energy of all types is the future – Not fossil fuels. Oh I didn’t see a work about the well established higher cancer rates surrounding the refineries in the Bay Area!
your poor timing will not work, duh.
As we pray the refineries will re open after Newsom is gone, we are going to be disappointed. They will not. Without PERMANENTLY eliminating state “Super-Agencies” managing the thicket of interlocking regulations, laws, and “you really should” enforceable regulations, it will not. The slow domino effect of businesses collapsing will take the job base with it as the flee onerous tax increases from a struggling population.
The entire state population has to change its attitude toward civilized life and how it is managed. Having lived here forever, I am not optimistic.
Steve Hilton is a start, but don’t count your chickens in a corrupt electoral system.
It used to EXXON Benicia, they were getting their oil from Alaska via tanker. My brother was a Marine Engineer with a regular run to Benicia from Drift River Oil Terminal in Alaska.
nice article sir
Good Riddance- No more elevated cancer cases surrounding this refinery as is the case throughout the Bay Area . This article glorifies a bad idea and is trying to protect the profits of the oil and gas industries. Sustainable energy and fuels are the future – yes, wind, solar, geothermal, tide/waves, even nuclear but time to kiss this antiquated industry goodbye!!!
hardly true, actually incorrect since govt makes more money on a gallon of gas than does the oil co.
BTW, roads are made of oil.
As an Ex-Mare Island employee, I know this area has gone through this before. the whole reason the refinery was built there is because the Benicia Arsenal closed, which was catastrophic for the community back then. Valero is a corporation that’s job is to make money. If they. an import refined oil from India for cheaper who’s to blame a Texas company. I question the source of the cride, how do we know it’s not from Russia? We don’t!!!