The odds were low. But even so, some Benicia city leaders hoped that California would emerge from the past week’s final lawmaking push for the year with a plan to keep Valero Energy Corp. from shuttering its Bay Area oil refinery next year.
Lawmakers announced big deals on electricity affordability, oil drilling and climate measures for Gov. Gavin Newsom to either reject or sign. But none dealt directly with a dramatic problem for Benicia: That its biggest taxpayer and employer would soon be abandoning its 900-acre gasoline-making facility on the outskirts of town.
“The silence is deafening,” Benicia City Manager Mario Giuliani said…