A data-driven framing of where California refining stands — demand trajectories, closure timelines, market concentration, and the policy vacuum that has emerged. Sets the stakes for the day's discussions.

This session gives an overview of refining in California, including how the industry developed and the complications it faces today. It covers where the refinery sites stand right now as operations wind down. It then walks through the components of decommissioning, from underground remediation to hauling away contaminated soil.

As California's regulatory landscape continues to evolve, this session brings together key stakeholders to discuss the policy actions that will shape the future of refining. The discussion will explore the implications of the Cap-and-Invest Program on refinery operations, investment decisions, and long-term competitiveness, while identifying practical pathways to balance decarbonization goals with energy reliability and economic resilience.

This presentation will offer a quick review of how fenceline communities and environmental justice organizations in collaboration with forward-looking Labor groups have pushed for safer refinery operations in California over the past few decades and highlights challenges and opportunities of a robust equitable transition strategy.

California's fuel policy landscape is shifting as refining capacity, regulatory frameworks, and market dynamics continue to evolve. This session evaluates a range of policy scenarios and their potential effects on fuel supply, pricing, and market stability across the state. It examines what policymakers, refiners, and other stakeholders need to weigh as they plan for continued volatility and structural change in California's gasoline market.

This session looks at how California keeps fuel supply steady as refining capacity comes offline. It covers import capability, marine and terminal logistics, infrastructure readiness, and the demand scenarios the state is planning against. It then examines the strategies and barriers to keeping supply adequate and affordable through the transition.

Local communities with a refinery in their midst will face multiple challenges when the refinery inevitably closes. But we can start taking action now to prepare for these communities’ transition to a more diversified economy. This session will lay out the multiple issues that communities face upon closure of a refinery, including end-of-life operational risks, site decommissioning and remediation, and redevelopment decision-making, and will discuss how to start addressing those issues now in preparation for future closures.

California has lost roughly a third of its crude refining capacity since 2023, and an increasing share of its transportation fuel now arrives by sea. This session examines what that shift means for supply reliability, port and terminal throughput, and jet fuel at the state's airports and military installations, drawing on two decades of refinery operating experience. The speakers set out their own view of the causes and of the policy response required.

When a refinery closes, the releases from its operations to soil and groundwater still need to be cleaned up under regulatory oversight. This session gives an overview of how site cleanup programs work for the assessment and cleanup of contaminated sites in California with a focus on refinery properties in California. It covers how sites are investigated, how cleanup requirements are set, how oversight of cleanup continues through the closure and redevelopment of refineries, and where public information and participation fit into the process.

Changes in refining capacity are reshaping California's fuel supply landscape, requiring new approaches to ensure market stability and energy reliability. This session examines supply chain resilience, import capabilities, marine logistics, infrastructure readiness, and the role of strategic planning in mitigating future supply disruptions.

Turning Wildfire Waste Wood into California Fuel Supply This session examines how thermal conversion of waste wood can produce renewable diesel and co-products, and how that fits alongside refinery transition and the policy and funding frameworks that support it. It explores what is needed to move from proven technology to financed, community-supported infrastructure, including feedstock supply, permitting, and partnerships.

Topic 1: Planning for the Future of Industrial and Refinery Sites

Speaker: Edber Macedo, Los Angeles City Planning

Topic 2: Energy Literacy and the Future of Transportation Fuel Supply

Speakers: Ron Stein, Energy Literacy Consultant; CJ Nord Supply Chains for Good

Topic 3: Reuse and Redesign

Speaker: Nick Albert, Purify BioEnergy Corporation

Decommissioned refineries hold unprecedented potential to transition from structural liabilities into high-value community and commercial assets. This session explores a roadmap of refinery land reuse, demonstrating how to unlock the economic value of legacy brownfields and spark an industrial rebirth, refueling a new era of regional growth. By presenting a series of successful domestic and global case studies, this presentation examines how aging energy infrastructure can be adaptively reimagined into bustling high-tech innovation parks, modern corporate offices, and vibrant public greenways. 

California's refining capacity is declining, and the state now relies on foreign imports for more than 60 percent of refinery crude and imports over 20 percent of its finished fuels. This session will examine how refinery closures and the transition to imported petroleum and finished fuels affect environmental justice communities, fuel affordability, jobs, and the resilience of California's energy supply. It will also consider whether the environmental burdens of production and refining are being reduced or simply relocated. The discussion will cover the emissions footprint of long-haul fuel and petroleum imports, the impacts of closures on host communities and workers, how local health protections such as SB 1137 interact with growing import reliance, and what increased exposure to global markets and supply chains means for California's energy and national security.