Hermosa Beach City Council mulls response to refinery bills
A view of the Torrance refinery, obscured by a barbed wire fence running along Madrona Ave. Photo The Hermosa Beach City Council voted Tuesday night to hold off on issuing a letter of support for a series of proposed state laws affecting the Torrance Refinery, signaling concern about regional impacts from the refinery but also uncertainty about the bills’ potential effects and disagreement over the extent to which Hermosa should involve itself in regional environmental issues. After discussion and occasionally tense questioning of officials from PBF Energy, which owns the Torrance Refining Company, council members agreed to hold off on a letter while staff gathered information from other bodies that have yet to take a position on the issue, including the Torrance City Council, the South Bay Cities Council of Governments and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The issue will return to the council in at most six months. “These bills are in their infancy, so we have a little bit of time. We don’t have unlimited time,” said Mayor Justin Massey, who agreed to delay a decision, but also expressed vigorous support for the ideas contained in the bill. He noted that while the…
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