The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) voted overwhelmingly on July 21, 2021, to require refineries including the Chevron and PBF facilities in the East Bay to reduce the amount of air pollution they emit by installing expensive particulate scrubbers.
Bay Area refineries are among the cleanest, most environmentally friendly in the world and some of the most responsible employers.  The BAAQMD Rule 6-5 would further reduce particulate emissions to clean up the cleanest refineries in the world.  This will shift the fuel supply for West Coast fuel demand for the military, the international airports at San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento, as well as the cruise ships, Coast Guard, and merchant ships serving West Coast ports.  Fuel dependency will shift over to China as the West Coast’s primary supplier.
The proposed version of BAAQMD Rule 6-5 will barely reduce particulate emission reductions while raising the nation’s highest energy prices even higher, showing racial bias by impacting lower income African American and Hispanic residents the most.
The BAAQMD has failed to understand that the most important fact about today’s environmental movement, and what the new book “ Clean Energy Exploitations ” explores is that the healthy and wealthy countries of the United States of America, Germany, the UK, and Australia representing 6 percent of the world’s population (505 million vs 7.8 billion) could literally shut down, and cease to exist, and the opposite of what you have been told and believe will take place.
Simply put, in these healthy and wealthy countries, every person, animal, or anything that causes emissions to harmfully rise could vanish off the face of the earth; or even die off, and global emissions will still explode in the coming years and decades ahead over the population and economic growth of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and Africa.
China (1.4 Billion), India (1.36 billion), Indonesia (270 million), Japan (126 million) and Vietnam (80 million) plan to build more than 600 coal power units , and African countries (1.2 Billion) are planning to build  more than 1,250  new coal and gas-fired power plants by 2030.
The book “Clean Energy Exploitations” helps citizens attain a better understanding that just for the opportunity to generate intermittent electricity that is dependent on favorable breezes and sunshine, the wealthier and healthier countries like Germany, Australia, Britain, and America continue to exploit the most vulnerable people and environments of the world today.
The healthier and wealthier countries fail to recognize that at least 80 percent of humanity , or more than 6 billion in this world are living on less than $10 a day , and b illions living with  little to no access to electricity ,  These poor folks need abundant, affordable, reliable, scalable, and flexible electricity while The healthier and wealthier are pursuing the most expensive ways to generate intermittent electricity from breezes and sunshine.
The air district has calculated that exposure to particulate matter from the Chevron refinery in Richmond increases mortality in the region by up to 10 deaths per year, while the PBF Energy refinery in Martinez adds up to six deaths per year. The microscopic interpretation of fatality data to support their decision will most likely lead to lawsuits and another refinery closing, decreasing fuel supplies, and increasing prices for all Californians.
The BAAQMD may not be cognizant that oil and gas are an international industry with more than 700 refineries worldwide that service the demands of the 8 billion living on earth.
The BAAQMD has shown empathy toward those potential 16 fatalities from local particulate matter, but has shown no concern toward currently, underdeveloped countries, mostly from energy starved countries with yellow, brown, and black colored skin residents, that are experiencing a bout 11,000,000 child deaths every year of which more than 70 per cent are attributable to six causes: diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. About 29,000  children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes .
When you include fatalities of “other than children”, the world numbers get even worse…
The BAAQMD feels good that they may be saving the health of 16 in Richmond and Martinez, at the expense of other Californians, while still maintaining their “blinders” toward millions of other fatalities, as California continues to “leak” emissions and air quality responsibilities to developing countries halfway around the world. The same countries that have virtually non-existent environmental regulations nor labor controls to protect the local workers in those developing countries. I hope the members of the BAAQMD can sleep peacefully!
This article originally appeared at California Political Review