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The latest news in the Chevron / Richmond oil refinery issue is that California Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to step in and mediate the negotiations between the oil giant and the City of Richmond. In working to do this, Brown's scored a point on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the California Governor's race.
According to the San Jose Mercury news and Contra Costa Times (yeah, I know they're merged), Brown appeared before the Richmond City Council and a "standing-room-only" crowd of 350 people, most reportedly laid off union workers from the Chevron facility, who's reconstruction effort was halted by court order in the wake of a lawsuit by environmentalists challenging the environmental impact report for the venue, costing them their jobs (I wonder if Dennis Roos was there?). The Richmond electeds passed a resolution supporting the involvement of the man who would be California's next governor (if Gavin didn't have something to say about it.)
Now, man I wish there was video of this, and I'm sure the AG does too. There's not one anywhere online and embedable as of this writing. AG Brown's running for Governor of California against San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. There's no question that a successful resolution at of the problem with Brown's involvement would be a feather in his already well-stocked political cap. Mayor Newsom's natural problem is he's the manager of one city, not a representative of the state. AG Brown can just "do his job" and score political points in the race for governor, and don't think that the crafty Brown (who would certainly chafe at my accurate description) doesn't know it.
However Chevron doesn't want the AG involved right now. I can only speculate why this is the case: they don't want to be seen as supporting AG Brown for Governor by approving his involvement and perhaps feel that his entry will be a polarizing element. But given that the Richmond City Council already gave Brown its endorsement that political train's out of the station. Additionally, , from the news, Chevron wants the current negotiations to continue as they are progressing and reportedly that's going well.
For Governor Brown, he's already scored some base hits with this issue. First, he got some face time with the Richmond City Council. Second, he got a resolution of support from them. Third, he's got the backing of the unions involved in trying to get their jobs back. Fourth, he's got a lot of media coverage from it. Fifth, he's able to tweet his efforts for his 547,000-plus followers to see on his Twitter page.
Not bad for a week's work; Gavin, ball's in your court.
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