Communities for a Better Environment v. County of Contra Costa

Court discharges writ of mandate based on revised EIR that addresses the court's previous requests. The new EIR states that the NuStar Terminal modifications, which the court previously asked the respondents to reconsider, are not part of the project. The court found that substantial evidence indicated that the court should defer to the agency's judgment, based on the NuStar changes being to the type of feedstock, and not to the volume of feedstock, and this output not going to the Rodeo Renewed Project. The court further finds that the revised EIR cumulative impact discussion, with no additional analysis of odor impacts, is sufficient as there are no confirmed odor complaints for Unit 250. Lastly, the petitioners challenge that, due to the court decertifying the entire EIR, the revised version needs to be recirculated in its entirety. The court found that the limited grounds on which the EIR was invalidated precluded a "severability" finding and thus, because only the specific portions of the EIR identified were revised, respondent was not required to recirculate the revised EIR.

Court entered judgment to grant the petition for writ of mandate based on the reasonings provided in the July 21, 2023 decision.

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The court vacated the previous judgment, to submit a new judgment enjoining the project operations. Court denied vacating the Writ, finding that it need not be modified.

A California Superior Court rejected some challenges to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for the conversion of an existing refinery in Rodeo to a renewable fuels refinery. The court found that a failure to include information about the mix of feedstocks—which would effect carbon emissions and hydrogen usage—did not negatively affect the analysis of environmental impacts. The court also found that the petitioners failed to show the project would have significant indirect land use impacts, including deforestation impacts. However, the court found that discussion of odor mitigation measures was insufficient. The court also found that the project description should have included changes to a rail terminal that increased its feedstock capacity and that an initial project to convert a hydrotreater to process renewable feedstocks had been improperly left out of the analysis of cumulative impacts.