inquilineOne of the big #oil refineries down by the #port of #LosAngeles announced that it will be closing in 2025, earlier than necessarily expected
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-10-16/phillips-66-will-shut-historic-wilmington-refinery
The complex has been implicated in lots of #ToxicLA , recently leaking benzene, toxic fires, etc.
In #OilBeach I tried to envision what it will mean for this geography if/when #oil departs:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo185167017.html
#ports #shipping #energy #LosAngeles #conservation #Biodiversity #EnvHist
The top article quotes an enthusiastic real estate broker: "this will allow a ton of new inventory and capacity that should help the market by providing more warehouse and distribution space”
First of all, not sure why more warehouse/distro space is a good thing to begin with; but there are other reasons to be skeptical, in that the land the refinery was on is EXTREMELY toxic:
https://www.reuters.com/business/150-years-spills-philadelphia-refinery-cleanup-highlights-toxic-legacy-fossil-2021-02-16/
These #energy #supplyChain patterns are not just a local LA story
What happens here has wider implications for #degrowth , environmental justice, & remediation of harm
But not if oil-land just gets turned into more warehouses for truly wasteful imported #plastic goods like Halloween decorations currently flooding front yards (made of oil; take #petroleum energy to produce; shipped across oceans and #freeways on #oil; destined for landfills sooner than later)
Kitschy graveyard as prologue:
