Comment Rescue: Kowalko Slams Copeland on Valero.
This deserves its own post:
From John Kowalko:
Ladies and gentlemen,
You have the advantage of witnessing the final morphing of Charlie Copeland into a Rick Jensen of the blogosphere.
Charlie has taken no verifiable facts, added a dose of false accusations, sprinkled in some blame without regard to any sense of honesty, shaken with a dose of pretend compassion for those who will suffer job losses and “VIOLA:” A political issue born of a nonsensical ignorance of reality, to be applied liberally to the Republican campaign of your choosing.
Valero is a company comprised of Oil Refineries. They have no vested interest in oil reserves, community engagement or fairness to the average worker. They are the modern day carpetbagger. They lease the car, hit the potholes and ignore the deterioration because at the end of the day they will turn it back in to be another’s problem.
Every day that they produce a gallon of gasoline at peak price is a day of celebration and corporate contentment. Every day that they reinvest in infrastructural maintenance or preventative equipment upgrades can be recorded by a lunar eclipse.
A little dollop of truth for Charlie, Valero was excluded from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative recently enacted. Although contributing a disproportionate amount of Carbon Dioxide releases from their energy generating plant they begged for the exemption,threatening organized labor with layoffs, lobbying that the costs passed through to the consumer would be unbearable. So not willing to risk that substantial negative economic impact I struck my amendment to include the refinery (as it should have been) although I voted against the RGGI initiative because of that and other reasons. I am not particularly proud that I succumbed to fear-mongering tactics.
Now the next chapter unfolded. The refinery shut down its pollution spewing Coker under the guise of cost savings and continued to run the facility with little regard to routine maintenance as long as gasoline was topping $4gal. This ill considered attitude soon had its negative impact and they experienced a major unscheduled shutdown. None of this was a result of over regulation, interference by environmental constrictions or provoked by the Democratic Administration of Gov. Markell or the newly acquired majority in the House.
The last owner in the half-dozen or so transitions that I personally experienced that had a preventative maintenance and legitimate quality control program in place with the monetary commitment to its success was the Motiva owners. The grueling process of refining oil and the toll it takes on men and equipment cannot maintain the pace to satisfy the thirst for profit if you exclude the costs of proper and safe maintenance of that equipment and your workforce.
The refinery was never in safer hands than when it was 100% unionized. When different owners would compare the profit loss margin of the Delaware City Refinery with their other facilities they would present a bottom line (ignoring the higher operational expenses of a facility capable of refining dirty/sour crude) and not including the massive losses of life and destruction that would too often occur in their non-union Port Arthur Texas plant or any of their other non-union Louisiana/Southwest facilities.
So Charlie its about time to dump the Jensen facade of innuendo, misrepresentations. You’re much too intelligent to truly believe some of the things you say.
Respectfully,
John Kowalko
I’m sure that diatribe comes as a great comfort to all the people who lost their jobs today. Now they don’t have to criticize Charlie Copeland for wanting them to be employed. Instead, they can celebrate the loss of their jobs with John Kowalko, now that we’re rid of the carpetbagging polluter who allowed 1,000 Delawareans to have food on their table.
Anon, you are as much an idiot as Charlie Copeland. The people we should all be blaming for 550 workers losing their jobs today is VALERO! You and your ilk seek to make this Markell’s fault, or the fault of pollution control and regulation. And that is disgustingly dishonest, as John Kowalko points out. No one is celebrating today, except you and Charlie Copeland.
Excuse me, but that is six paragraphs of John Kowalko describing Valero like a jailed serial killer and not a company who paid a lot of payroll to Delawareans for a long time. That kind of ripping says “Good riddance,” not “a whole bunch of families are hurting right now.” I’ll also point out that Kowalko shares his disappointment for the families exactly zero times in that tirade.
poor big business. not responsible to anyone for anything they do. those sympathetic figures who pull down millions, are sheltered from taxes, and can make more money by firing people and raising the price of their product then by actually acting responsibly in the best interests of the greater good. This is our Robber Baron capitalism in full effect. the rich get richer, the poor get screwed while republicans yell and scream for lower taxes for the rich.
and im sorry about the job loss, but my lungs are grateful that poison factory is gone. maybe the state legislator will stop holding up Blue Water from employing delawareans to build a wind farm….. but i doubt it
If Charlie Copeland would confine himself to a few facts, then perhaps people like Kowalko wouldn’t have the opportunity to take him to task for stupid opportunism. Valero closed a plant in Aruba earlier this year (which is not subject to any of the boogiemen that Copeland and his talking point minions have ginned up) and another refinery (Sunoco) closed in NJ last month. This, after $4.00 a gallon gas and calls not just for more drilling for for building more refinery capacity. Capacity that the owners of these plants don’t seem to think that they need — even though Valero was gearing up to switch over its plant to be able to refine sweet crude. There’s going to be more of this, not less, and this is a result of the economics of refining.
But don’t expect the so-called “Party of Business” to tell you that. They will just lazily trot out their current political boogeymen and cravenly blame it all on whatever saod boogeymen are. And they do it because no one will check what they say, no one fact checks their bullshit and they don’t expect to run into anyone who might know better.
There isn’t a single Valero worker who lost his or her job today who was responsible for the closing of that plant. No one in the government had a single vote on the status of that plant. Valero was responsible for the closing of that plant, because the only thing valuable to them is the money in their pockets. The fact that they have just put plenty of Delaware families in jeopardy isn’t something that you will be hearing from the so-called “Party of Business”, but they will try to spin Valero’s business decision as somehow the fault of government or the workers which is despicable on just every level.
The good news here, is that while Charlie Copeland has plenty of stupidity to transmit on this topic, he has plenty of money to ramp up his own business to hire a whole bunch of people who just got laid off today. But hey — how long do you think it will take for the so-called “Party of Business” idiots to show up to note what a stupid business decision it would be to help these families out.
I didn’t know Kowalko was such and idiot.
Honest question/opinion here and I thought about this when I heard John on the radio today…
…monetary commitment to its success was the Motiva owners…
…wasn’t it when Motiva ran that plant that the era of tremendous fines for environmental-damaging issues was implemented? As a resident from around Bear-Glasgow and now in Middletown for the last crapload of years, I honestly don’t recall Motiva as a good neighbor to the area. I can remember residents actually relieved when they left, only to be disappointed by Premcor and then all over again with Valero. I have no comment about how they treated the employees, because I have no insight, so I will take John on his word for that part.
A political issue born of a nonsensical ignorance of reality, to be applied liberally to the Republican campaign of your choosing.
All this tells me is if there is a fray to stay above, screw it, jump right in it.
OK, am I hitting moderation with all my comments now?
Amazing. In anon’s world, we should be EVER SO GRATEFUL for the opportunity to work our fingers to the bone that we should forgive our employers any trespass, because gosh, who else would ever hire us, such lowly talentless creatures that we are! It is such typical Republican thinking to place absolutely zero value upon labor and to treat employers as saintly, charitable institutions.
Fucking moron didn’t even read the post. Valero could have stayed open if they’d bothered to actually invest in their own equipment. They’re not victims of government oversight, they’re merely dealing with the consequences of their own lack oversight. It’s like blaming the road for your blown tire when you never bothered to check the tread or the pressure. This is the same “ride the horse as fast you can until it dies” mentality that created Enron and Lehman Brothers.
I’m not sure what’s going on Smitty. It’s not just catching you, I just rescued xstryker as well. Perhaps our tech gurus can weigh in.
No worries. Obama will own the oil companies soon…and then they will really be run efficiently.
Besides, it must be Bush’s fault this supply-demand/profit mentality that businesses have.
Peak oil. You will soon see more refineries closing. Why invest millions when there will be no need for refineries in 20yrs.
I heard parts of the conversation between John Kowalko and Allan Loudell on my afternoon commute and one of the points made then which Kowalko’s letter alludes to when he mentions the safety record when the refinery was 100% union is the possibiility that the refinery may shut down under current owners and reopen in the future as a nonunion refincery.
That might create jobs,but not with as livable a wage and not with a workers organization to advocate for a safe work environment.
Electric Hose & Rubber left Del in the 1970s and reopened nonunion in another state. The State of Delaware has contracted out a lot of work to nonprofits and for profit companies over the last 10-15 years. These jobs used to be done by union workers with union protections.
Kowalko was addressing this issue. I would disagree with what appears to be anon’s implication that Kowalko has no compassion for the workers there. When I met him 5 or 6 years ago he was working there. It is likely he knows some of the people losing their jobs on a first name basis.
Why should anyone expect a living wage or a company to follow environmental law. Pay poverty wages, pollute, stall on cleanup and then split and leave cleanup costs and unemployment to the government. That’s the republican way. After all, livable wages and responsible companies = SOCIALISM!
I’ll try to briefly explain.
In the context of good environmental neighbors, there have been none in the unwieldy and nasty business of refining oil.
At one point in time, however, there was a decision made by Motiva to implement a preventative quality maintenance upgrade program. This program would result in more efficiency, more productivity at lower operating costs and less breakdowns and emission releases benefiting the environment. The downside (in the business world) was that there is an upfront cost that will be fully recovered and profitable after 5-10 years. Further complicating the discussion is the fact that when Motiva offers the refinery for sale they can make the operating expenses bottom line more attractive by cancelling such a program. When the buyer comes in and has no interest whatsoever in reinvesting in infrastructural upgrades he will run it i
My apologies for cutting my comment.
A buyer such as Premcor and Valero who operate refineries solely as production and profit making ventures have little or no interest in the necessary expenditures to maintain a facilities viability for the long run. It’s like clearing a forest without replanting. Profit gets weighted against other facilities owned and against the cost of maintenance.
Let me assure all of the named and nameless commentors that I do indeed know hundreds of those who worked at Delaware City by first name and I consider them and their families as my friends.
Neither Anon nor Charlie could ever appreciate the depth of pain and agony I feel for these families. They cannot even begin to imagine my feelings of personal frustration and impotency realizing how little I may be able to do to help them. But I don’t think for one moment that any solution, suggestion or idea that would be helpful will be found in some politically posturing blame game.
If we don’t fight to keep the refinery open as a production facility it will be difficult to withstand the negative economic impact on the entire State.
1) Job Losses = PIT revenue shortfalls
2) Job Losses = less consumer spending revenue
3) Unemployment Compensation expenditures rise
4) Health insurance is lost further overburdening system
5) Property Tax Revenues are lost:
a) Delaware City 40% of revenues
b) County $340,000
c) Schools $823,000
6) Gross Receipt Tax revenue
7) Local business revenue stream
8) Increase in regional gasoline prices
We have got to stop pretending that some vague perception of over regulation got us here. The refinery was excluded, exempted from the cap and trade (RGGI) program and has paid minimal amounts in fines for the damage they’ve done. Unabashed corporate greed and manipulations of shareholder values precipitated this closure, nothing more nothing less.
Now we must move forward with ideas, suggestions and innovative thinking. Can a buyer’s interest be solicited with the attractiveness of the sour crude rtefining capabilities of this facilities/
For instance an ownership prospect to CITGO -Venezuelan sour crude exporter or Saudi Arabia, a previous partner with STAR or how about exploring Canadian Refiners such Suncor of Canada.
I don’t see what everyone is worried about.. based on the Boxwood model, a European company will come in with a bunch of state and federal loan money, set up, employ 25% of the amount of people who used to work there, and make a premium product that cost 3x average market value for that product…
..and it will be deemed a major success.
anon sez, “a company who paid a lot of payroll to Delawareans for a long time.”
Shows how little you know. The company in question, Valero, has paid salaries in Delaware City for less than five years. Is that what you consider a “long time,” you corporate-loving dumbass?
“Is that what you consider a “long time,” you corporate-loving dumbass?”
Ever go without a paycheck for five years, Geezer? I imagine that would feel like a long time.
And to Mr. Kowalko, I find it interesting, given your deep concern for the people involved, that your first instinct was to write a statement protecting your ideology with no mention of those people.
I would agree with Mr. Copeland that the state of Delaware has been hostile to that installation ever since the days of “to hell with Shell.”
Wow ! Iam old enough to remember when Mr. Getty, sitting over there in England used to say “I will run this outit anyway I want to, or I close it ” And everyone kneeled.
Acusing Mr, Kowalko of not sympathizing with the workers is a low blow.
Why has no one brought up the real villains in this story, Ruth Ann Minner & Gary Patterson?
It’s caught me a couple of times. I choose to take it as a compliment. 😉
Why has no one brought up the real villains in this story, Ruth Ann Minner & Gary Patterson?
Oh anon…they would have been lynched for “costing us the jobs”
You said it yourself, look up there “Ever go without a paycheck for five years, Geezer?
There you have it.
Like parallel verbal tics, some people credit Reagan for everything good, and others blame Ruth Ann for everything bad.
John — Did Ruth Ann Minner not allow Valero to squeeze 8 years of dirty profits out of that plant? Was one of her top handlers not Gary Patterson, the state’s chief oil and gas lobbyist?
Also, if there’s any verbal tic here, it’s name is Bush.
“Ever go without a paycheck for five years, Geezer? I imagine that would feel like a long time.”
No, but I have friends who have. And yours is still a dumbass statement, for the reason I laid out and you can’t answer. Either say something intelligent or shut your piehole.
You’re right, John, she wasn’t competent enough to blame for everything bad. We’ll have to be content with “worst governor since her former boss.”
Would Gary Patterson be related to Greg Patterson… under the employ of Jack Markell?
I’m sure glad we have Jack and not just a bunch of Minner cronies…
I believe that Greg is Gary’s son. Gary was not on the Minner team, Greg was, and is on the Markell team.
Geekster: Gary most certainly was on Minner’s team. For years, Gary has been one of Minner’s most important confidants.
So now we get a LOVE Canal, instead of the C&D. Any stimulus money in clean-up?
this is not in defense of valero, but the port arthur (texas) plant IS a union facility. i’m just saying.