Refinery Reform Campaign

Citizens group to hold public forum on proposed oil refinery

Apr 6, 2005
Yuma Sun

Yuma County Citizens for Clean Air will hold a public forum on Thursday about a controversial proposed oil refinery planned for Yuma County.

The forum will feature Denny Larson, coordinator of the San Francisco-based Refinery Reform Campaign and Neil Carman, Clean Air program director for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter.

"This forum will offer a view that has not yet been explored in Yuma County", according to a news release from the citizens group, which is opposed to the refinery.

The forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church, 150 W. 28th St., according to the release.

Phoenix-based Arizona Clean Fuels proposes to build the refinery along Interstate 8 about 40 miles east of Tacna. It would be the first refinery ever built in Arizona and the first in the United States in nearly three decades.

Supporters say the refinery would add to the county's economic base, create new jobs, generate millions of dollars in property tax revenues and meet growing demands for fuel.

Opponents fear the refinery could cause pollution that would adversely affect human health and the environment and that the refinery could lower the quality of life in the county.

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