As background on the prospect of ChevronTexaco bailing out of the Richmond refinery, readers are directed to several stories carried in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 1 and 2.

• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/01/financial1034EDT0068.DTL
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/01/BU232572.DTL
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/02/BU228009.DTL

According one story, ChevronTexaco Chairman O'Reilly said “The U.S. station sales primarily will occur in other markets besides the West Coast, a region that traditionally has been highly profitable for the company. All the stations that are sold will continue to sell Chevron-branded gasoline, spokesman Stan Luckoski said.”

If the West Coast is where ChevronTexaco is making a profit, why would they want to shut down? Something doesn’t jibe here.

Incidentally, initial reactions to the Richmond refinery shut down prospect are positive. “Maybe it’s time to try a Richmond without a refinery,” said one E-FORUM reader. “I think Richmond would be better off.”

In an unrelated action, Erin Brockovich's law firm filed a second lawsuit against Beverly Hills, its school district and several oil and gas companies on behalf of hundreds of residents who say they became ill from toxic fumes from a campus oil derrick. The suit filed Friday alleges that more than 400 people developed various forms of cancer because of an oil derrick on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. Emissions of benzene and other substances have led to a high rate of cancer among the school's alumni and others, the suit claims. The first suit, filed in June, makes similar allegations involving 21 former students who attended the school between 1977 and 1996. It named 25 oil and gas companies, including Chevron-Texaco Corp. and the derrick's current operator, Venoco Inc. See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/01/state0223EDT0246.DTL. Brockovich, an investigator with Masry's law firm, rose to prominence when she put together a landmark 1996 water pollution case that won the residents of the small desert town of Hinkley a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The story of that case was told in the movie "Erin Brockovich," which earned Julia Roberts a best-actress Oscar. Albert Finney played Masry.