Environmentalists Win Round One in Battle Over National City Fuel Depot 

The National City Planning Commission on Monday voted 4-1 to reject a controversial fuel depot on the city’s west side that would have brought a steady stream of oil tanker rail cars and big rig trucks to an industrial neighborhood abutting homes, churches and an elementary school. 

Before a packed and vocal audience of residents, environmental activists and community leaders, planning commissioners said the proposal to build a biofuels transfer station on derelict railroad property less than a mile from City Hall would endanger residents’ health and perpetuate what they called a “cycle” of unwise development decisions in the city. 

“National City is not a dumping ground,” said Planning Commissioner Randi Castle-Salgado after casting a no vote on the project. “This is part of the environmental racism here…We can’t stand for this anymore.” 

The Planning Commission’s rejection of the project came despite vocal support from a local construction workers union, which said the transfer station would bring badly needed jobs to an economically struggling city. 

Debate over the project highlighted a widening divide both in San Diego and throughout California between proponents of economic development and environmental advocates who say California’s longstanding commitment to environmental causes is weakening. 

For more than two years, Texas-based energy and logistics company USD Clean Fuels has sought to build a 7.5-acre fuel depot in National City that would transfer ethanol and other biologically derived fuels from long-haul rail cars to big rig trucks for local delivery. 

Company representatives said at Monday’s Planning Commission meeting that, though the transfer station would service up to 72 delivery trucks per day around the clock, it actually would reduce overall truck traffic in the San Diego region by making it possible to bring biofuels to the region by rail. 

Currently, biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel, are refined in the Los Angeles-area and brought to San Diego by truck. USD representatives said the transfer station would eliminate long-haul truck trips by shifting biofuels to more environmentally friendly trains. 

USD Chief Administrative Officer Bill Frerking said Monday that the project was “for the benefit of the environment in National City and the greater San Diego area” because it would reduce overall diesel emissions and make it easier for local consumers to use biofuels. 

“Cleaner air is associated with cleaner fuels,” he said. 

Opponents of the project vehemently disagreed. 

“I have a son with asthma,” said National City resident Marguerita Moreno in public comments at Monday’s meeting. “Our health is more important than money.” 

“We are low income and that’s why you’re trying to take advantage of us,” said resident Marguerita Garcia to USD representatives. 

Frerking and other USD representatives at Monday’s meeting declined to comment on the Planning Commission vote. 

In a statement emailed Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, “We appreciated the opportunity to present to the commissioners and hear their comments and questions about the project, as well as the community comments. USD Clean Fuels will continue to follow all applicable state and local processes as it evaluates next steps for the project. We remain committed to making a positive contribution to the National City community by working with our customers, regulators, and prospective neighbors to find a path forward that advances the goals of cleaner air through eliminating millions of truck miles delivering those fuels today.” 

If USD appeals the Planning Commission rejection, National City Councilmembers will take up the proposal at a future meeting, likely next month. Councilmembers could vote to ratify the Commission’s decision or overturn it and allow the project to move forward. 

Debate over the project on Monday highlighted shifting terrain in California’s longstanding tug-of-war between economic development and environmental advocacy. 

At a time when costs in the state are rising and working-class voters, including in South San Diego County, are reevaluating their political loyalties, projects like the National City transfer station that might once have been uniformly opposed now draw a less predictable mix of allies and opponents. 

In the audience at Monday’s meeting were roughly a dozen unionized construction workers holding signs supporting the project, which they said would bring unionized jobs to National City and lower consumer costs by making fuel transportation more efficient. 

“Our members are highly skilled, well trained and ready to deliver the quality construction this project requires,” said Kelvin Barrios, director of governmental affairs for Local 89 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “This means good-paying local jobs, while also contributing to cleaner fuels and cleaner air for our local families and communities.” 

Barrios said USD had agreed to hire only construction companies that employ union workers. 

The Planning Commision vote on the fuel depot came as state lawmakers in Sacramento capped a contentious legislative session that tempered or even reversed parts of California’s long pro-environment track record. 

Lawmakers, including Democrats from San Diego County, approved rolling back parts of California’s landmark Environmental Quality Act, made it easier to drill for oil in parts of the San Joaquin Valley and loosened restrictions on high-density housing construction near transit centers. 

One of the bills approved by legislators was authored by South San Diego County Assemblymember David Alvarez, whose district includes National City. Alvarez’s bill, now awaiting a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom, would increase the amount of ethanol allowed in California gasoline. 

Ethanol is one of the fuels that would be delivered at the proposed National City transfer station. 

Alvarez spokesperson Chris Jonsmyr said Alvarez had not taken a position on the fuel transfer station. “This is for local experts and the community to decide,” Jonsmyr said. 

Environmentalists and residents on Monday celebrated the Planning Commission vote. 

“The community has made it loud and clear they do not want this dangerous project in their neighborhood poisoning the lungs of their children,” said Jose Franco Garcia, executive director of Environmental Health Coalition, a local environmental group that worked to rally opposition to the transfer station. “The [planning] commissioners did the right thing.” 

“I’m happy,” said National City resident Carmen Arroyo. “The people [on the Planning Commission] helped us and heard us…We are having no more of these kinds of projects in National City.” 

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