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Globally, the amount of pollution you breathe depends largely on where you live. This is evident in Southern California, where the combination of dust, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides (called smog) has been increasing for the past two decades. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of haze-related deaths in Southern California increased by 10%, hitting the communities of color in southern Los Angeles and the Inland Empire region the hardest. 

However, on Friday, when world leaders gathered in Glasgow, Scotland to discuss efforts to curb climate change, a 13-member supervisory committee in Southern California approved an important new rule called Refinery Rule 1109.1. It can significantly purify the air in the area. 

Several decades-old regulations will require 16 facilities, including 12 refineries in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties, to install pollution control devices on obsolete equipment, especially heaters and Boiler system. It is considered because the air area failed to meet federal smog standards, and because the state’s Environmental Justice Act AB 617 aims to clean the air in communities adjacent to industry throughout the state. 

AB 617 was passed in 2017 to guide local air districts to accelerate refinery renovation to reduce pollution and work with community members to develop emission reduction plans. According to two regulations of AB 617, local air quality regulators are under pressure to pass refinery regulations. This rule meets the legal requirements to accelerate refinery upgrades, and the community will adopt this rule as a priority in its emission reduction plan.

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The new pollution control equipment will reduce harmful air pollutants—especially nitrogen oxides or NOx—up to 8 tons per day. On Friday morning, after two hours of public comment and deliberation, the South Coast Air Quality Management District unanimously passed the regulation. 

"This is a critical decision and moment," said Julia May, a senior scientist at the environmental justice organization Communities for a Better Environment. "You can't completely clean up these industries-they are inherently dirty-but while getting rid of them, this is part of what we can do to ask them not to discharge these health-damaging pollutants into the community."

Although smog levels around the world have been declining since the 1970s, last year Los Angeles experienced its worst smog level in nearly 30 years. Air pollution, including pollution caused by smoke, can damage the lungs and can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, and strokes. In Southern California, more people die from air pollution than traffic deaths and crime-related deaths combined. Friday’s ruling calls for upgrades or modifications to approximately 300 pieces of equipment, including heaters, boilers, gas turbines and torches — some of which are more than 50 years old — are expected to help prevent premature deaths and deaths of nearly 400 people. More than 6,000 asthma attacks. The region will be in the next 15 years. 

It will have a huge impact on the approximately 110,000 residents of Carson and Wilmington, the two communities that make up the "fossil fuel capital" of the western United States. Six of the 16 facilities affected by the new regulations are located in the community, including five large oil refineries and an asphalt plant.

All in all, due to fewer residents requiring hospitalization and unemployed due to illness, the public health benefits of the rule in the next 15 years are worth 3.49 billion U.S. dollars. The committee also estimated that the rule will prevent 21,400 working days of absence due to illness and will also create more than 1,800 construction and monitoring-related jobs each year for the next 12 years. 

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May said that these benefits reflect how the United States can get rid of its dependence on dirty energy. "We can do this in a reasonable way," she said. "Although we are only transitioning from fossil fuels, we can and must protect workers and create new jobs while gradually adopting clean energy." 

Before Friday, due to strong opposition from affected companies such as Chevron, Tesoro, Marathon and Phillips 66, and even internal struggles within the air board, the rule has been in a state of uncertainty since at least 2015. In 2015, the Air Council originally planned to implement a new smoke regulation, but it was rejected by some board members, including Los Angeles City Councilman Jobscano, in favor of a weaker plan proposed by the oil industry. Dissenting members claimed that more time was needed to implement the rule, which eventually became rule 1109.1. 

Buscaino, who voted for 1109.1 this time, said on Friday that his decision-making process “recognized that the refinery hired [his] friends and family — good union-paying jobs.” Buscaino's areas include Wilmington and Port of Los Angeles. 

In the past six years, industry leaders have claimed that installing new equipment is a onerous task. The Aviation District estimates that these 16 facilities will spend a total of approximately US$2 billion to comply with regulations-far below the estimated value of US$3.5 billion in public health benefits.

Byron Chan, a Southern California attorney with environmental law firm EarthJustice, told Grist that the compliant price reflects inaction in the industry's history. "In the past 30 years, they have done almost nothing," he said. "It's like if you never went to the dentist, and when you first went to the dentist, you were 55 years old and charged very expensive fees-but if you go to the dentist every six months in your life, you Don’t have to be put in this situation in the first place."*

Representatives of Phillips 66, the operator of two major refineries in Los Angeles County, declined to respond to Grist's request for comment, and Marathon Refinery did not respond to Grist's request at all before the release. According to the analysis of Communities for a Better Environment, the Marathon refineries and Phillips 66 refineries in Carson and Wilmington are among the facilities most affected by Rule 1109.1. In 2016, the marathon reported that it released 1.6 million pounds of nitrogen oxides, and Phillips 66 reported that it released 1.4 million pounds of nitrogen oxides. 

Many local polluters initially agreed with pollution regulations that have been in use since 1993. The Regional Clean Air Incentive Market (RECLAIM) program mimics quotas and transaction procedures, allowing refineries to pay for pollution. Instead of directly ordering each polluter to install specific clean air technologies, the plan allows facilities to purchase credits from other cleaner facilities, which in turn allows them to exceed allowed emissions. In the first few years of implementation, it has become cheaper to pay for excessive pollution than to reduce emissions by installing new equipment. Finally, with the implementation of RECLAIM, air pollution and smog throughout the Southern California Basin eventually increased. 

The new rules replaced the RECLAIM plan, but some advocates believe that the aviation zone still prefers industry over the community. "The refinery knew that if they pushed it a little bit, the air zone might make room for anything they argued about," Chen said. "On the other hand, the community will never benefit from doubt."

During the latest drafting of the new rules, Grist's analysis of meeting minutes found that the aviation zone met with refinery ownership groups and oil lobbyists almost five times as often as with environmental groups. (The Aviation District did not respond to Grist’s request for comment in time.)

Using e-mails issued through the California Public Records Act, Grist was able to confirm that representatives of Southern California refineries—especially the Phillips 66 plants in Carson and Wilmington—have been in the process of drafting regulations in the past. Has been in contact with the Air Council for years. In an email, a representative of the air zone and the chief environmental scientist of Phillip 66 adopted an informal and relaxed tone as they talked about potential alternative compliance programs that would allow the refinery to have more Room for manoeuvre to reduce emissions. 

The alternative plans discussed in these emails, called "I-Plan," "B-Cap," and "B-Plan," were eventually included in the approval of refinery rule 1109.1. The "B-Cap" plan established a "mass emission cap", allowing refineries to trade emissions within their facilities, rather than just directly meeting the standards of specific polluting equipment. In other words, if the refinery's combustion emissions are lower than the proposed standards, they can use the reduction to justify them from excess emissions from boilers or heater systems.

However, in the end, as a step in the right direction, the rule received unanimous praise from community groups and legislators. After another major petroleum regulation just passed in the region, it provides tangible benefits and strong emission reduction targets: Last month, the California Environmental Justice Organization announced a new ruling banning the licensing of oil and gas wells in Governor Gavin Newsom. After rejoicing, it was within 3,200 feet of community places such as homes, schools, and hospitals. The new regulations were introduced after years of advocacy and a recent Grist analysis, which showed that oil wells are prevalent in black, Latino, and low-income communities in California, especially in the Southern California Basin, and the pollution they produce is disturbing . 

"This is a tragedy, these victories have not happened before," May said. "But they are great victories, and now we will fight for strong implementation." 

*Editor's note: Earthjustice is an advertiser of Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist's editorial decision.

Naveena Sadasivam reported on this story.

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