Grantee Research Project Results
Community Health and Air Quality Implications of Refinery Retrofits and Retirements (CHAIRS)
EPA Grant Number: R840563Title: Community Health and Air Quality Implications of Refinery Retrofits and Retirements (CHAIRS)
Investigators: Cushing, Lara , Morello-Frosch, Rachel , Bilsback, Kelsey
Institution: University of California - Los Angeles , University of California - Berkeley , Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: June 1, 2023 through April 23, 2025
Project Amount: $1,125,000
RFA: Drivers and Environmental Impacts of Energy Transitions in Underserved Communities. (2022) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Environmental Justice , Health Effects , Watersheds
Description:
The US is the world’s largest producer and consumer of petroleum and is home to over 18% of the world’s refining capacity. California (CA) ranks third among U.S. states for refining and generates roughly 10% of the country’s crude oil distillate. California's refineries are among the largest stationary sources of air pollutants and greenhouse gases in the state, and are disproportionately located in disadvantaged communities. As a result of the pandemic in 2020, six refineries including one in CA ceased operations, providing a “natural experiment” to evaluate the health impacts of refineries. Several CA refineries have additionally announced plans to convert to biofuel production, with unknown implications for air quality and health in nearby communities. This project will focus in the northeast San Francisco Bay Area CA which is home to five oil refineries.
Objective:
Our multidisciplinary team of atmospheric chemists, environmental health scientists, epidemiologists, and community-based environmental justice advocates proposes to quantify and widely communicate the air quality and health implications of transitioning from petroleum refining through the following objectives:
- Utilize the 2020 closure of the Marathon oil refinery in Martinez, CA as a natural experiment to quantify the impacts of oil refining on rates of preterm birth, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations. We hypothesize that post-closure rates of these adverse health impacts in the nearby community will have declined compared to communities farther away.
- Model the air quality, health, and economic impacts of retiring the four operational oil refineries in the San Francisco Bay Area and compare them to alternative scenarios of retrofit to biofuel production. We hypothesize that refinery retirements will result in reduced rates of a range of adverse health impacts, while retrofits will result in fewer health benefits.
- Advance community organizing and policy advocacy through the engagement of community members and advocates in study design and results dissemination and a web-based interactive tool to inform petroleum refinery conversion or retirement.
Approach:
We will utilize administrative health records in a difference-in-differences design to quantify the health impacts of the Marathon refinery closure. We will use measured ambient air quality concentrations from a high spatial resolution low-cost sensor network and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to estimate changes in fine particulate matter, ozone, and hazardous air pollutants and calculate avoided adverse health impacts and associated economic benefits resulting from refinery retirements or retrofits.
Expected Results:
Outcomes will include estimates of the causal effect of oil refinery operations on rates of preterm birth and healthcare utilization, and projections regarding the health and economic impacts attributable to future air quality changes associated with retiring or retrofitting multiple petroleum refineries in a disproportionately impacted region. Results will inform the development of an interactive web-based data visualization tool to inform decision-making regarding decarbonization of the refining sector nationally and better equip affected communities to participate in decision-making processes.
Supplemental Keywords:
energy, biomass, renewable feedstocks, epidemiology, EPA Region 9Progress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.