Court: Chevron Richmond Expansion Is Illegal

For more than two years, Chevron maintained that East Bay environmentalists had filed a frivolous lawsuit against the oil company’s planned Richmond refinery expansion. Chevron even blamed environmentalists for allegedly costing the region much-needed jobs and hinted that it might shut down the Richmond facility if it didn’t get its way. But yesterday, the California First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the environmentalists had been right all along. Chevron’s expansion plans, the court said, violated California environmental law.