Rodeo Renewed: ‘Right project at the right time’

Rodeo Renewed, the Phillips 66 project expected to transform the company’s San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, Calif., into one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities, stands to reduce facility emissions, preserve well-paid jobs and help California meet both its demand for transportation fuels and its environmental goals.

Those are the key takeaways outlined by Contra Costa County in a recently released draft environmental impact report, a requirement of the project’s permitting process under the California Environmental Quality Act. The report represents an important milestone for Rodeo Renewed toward securing the necessary permits because it provides the public with the opportunity to review the document and provide input to the county.

“Phillips 66 and the Rodeo Renewed team are encouraged by the publication of the draft EIR and excited to reach the public phase of this project,” said Rich Harbison, Vice President of the San Francisco Refinery. “We believe the draft EIR demonstrates that Rodeo Renewed stands to improve local air quality by reducing emissions, preserve family-wage jobs and help California achieve its environmental goals by locally producing a renewable fuel with lower lifecycle carbon emissions.”

With Rodeo Renewed, Phillips 66 aims to pivot its Rodeo Refinery away from processing crude oil, instead using a variety of renewable feedstocks to produce lower-carbon transportation fuels by 2024. Upon approval and after conversion, the facility will have an initial production capacity of 800 million gallons per year (52,000 barrels per day) of renewable diesel, renewable gasoline and sustainable aviation fuel, also known as SAF.

Renewable fuels from the converted facility, which after Rodeo Renewed is operational will produce up to 1 billion gallons per year (67,000 BPD), stand to slash lifecycle carbon emissions by an estimated 65%. That’s the equivalent of taking 1.4 million cars off California roads each year.

Projected environmental and economic benefits of the Rodeo Renewed conversion outlined in the draft EIR include:

• Reducing stationary criteria pollutant emissions by more than 50%, including 80% in sulfur oxides, 33% in nitrous oxides and 20% in particulate-matter emissions  
• Cutting water usage at the facility by 160 million gallons per year
• Creating more than 500 construction jobs, to be filled using local union labor
• Preserving more than 650 family-wage jobs, including full-time employees and contractors
• Helping California meet regional demand for renewable and conventional transportation fuels while assisting the state in achieving its environmental goals, including carbon neutrality by 2045.

The draft EIR was prepared pursuant to CEQA requirements by Contra Costa County, which is the lead agency and is responsible for the report’s adequacy and objectivity. Phillips 66 collaborated with the county by providing all necessary information regarding Rodeo Renewed.

The public is invited to review the draft EIR and provide comments to the county by 4 p.m. PST on Dec. 17.

Members of the public who wish to express their support for Rodeo Renewed are invited to visit this site. To learn more about the project, visit www.RodeoRenewed.com.

“We invite the public to learn more about our project,” said Nik Weinberg-Lynn, Manager, Rodeo Renewable Energy. “We believe it’s the right project at the right time for Contra Costa County and for California.”