After “years of disrepair,” the City Council on Tuesday approved spending up to $1.6 million to fix and maintain the city’s aging solar panels for the next five years. There’s a caveat. Background: The city has 10 solar arrays installed about 15 years ago to power a
Black smoke and soot erupted from a flare stack during a cleaning operation at the Valero Refinery in Benicia Thursday morning, prompting the Fire Department to issue a voluntary shelter in place – the most recent emissions event attributed to refinery shutdown activities. For two months, residents have witnessed increased flaring
Update, Jan. 27: The Benicia Fire Department issued a notice Wednesday that intermittent odors and flaring at the Valero refinery are related to refinery shutdown operations, and that "these conditions are expected to continue intermittently over the next several months." The Department is working with Bay Area Air
Valero said it plans to layoff 237 employees from its Benicia facility this spring when it idles the refinery processing units on East 2nd St., impacting scientists, engineers, maintenance workers, supervisors, operators and more. A list of the position titles impacted is in the letter embedded below. Valero Refining Company
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The Benicia Bridge is a local newsletter launched in January 2026 by two professional journalists who recently returned to our hometown of Benicia. We were raised here. We live here. We care about this community. Why The Benicia Bridge? A bridge helps people traverse obstacles, brings people together and provides