Explosion and Fire at Chevron's El Segundo Refinery Contained; No Injuries Reported

"...massive explosion..."

"...massive fire..."

"...huge flames and thick smoke..."

"...panic among residents..."

"...massive inferno..."

"...towers of flames..."

"...shock wave through surrounding neighborhoods..."

"...windows rattling and walls shaking..."

"...illuminating the night sky a hazy orange..."

"...prompting widespread alarm..."

"...elevated levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)..."

"...linked to cancer, respiratory disease, and other chronic health problems..."

"...virtually daily occurrence in America..."

"...social crimes..."

"...predictable outcomes of a deregulated, profit-driven system..."

"...treats human lives as expendable..."

"...chronically underfunded and politically neutered..."

"...serve more as public relations shields than enforcers of safety..."

"...dismantled regulatory agencies..."

"...slashed enforcement budgets..."

"...privileges corporate profit over public welfare..."

"...staggering rollback of environmental and safety oversight..."

"...merely the latest warning flare..."

"...sweeping restructuring of California’s energy landscape..."

"...eliminating thousands of stable jobs..."

"...hollowing out entire working-class communities..."

"...dictated not by concern for the planet but by shifting profit calculations..."

"...shutter older facilities when they are no longer sufficiently lucrative..."

"...leaves behind environmental devastation, economic blight, and mass unemployment..."

"...cynically exploits the crisis..."

"...defend the same fundamental interests: corporate profitability and capitalist property relations..."

"...exposed as a fraud..."

"...under pressure from oil companies..."

"...guarantees decades more of fossil fuel extraction..."

"...a gift to agribusiness and refiners disguised as consumer 'relief'..."

"...failed to challenge the systemic dangers..."

"...isolated a strike..."

"...boasted that its national refinery agreement that year did not contribute to inflation..."

"...contained substandard wage increases..."

"...industrial safety has been stretched to its limits by decades of cost-cutting, deregulation, and profit extraction..."

"...symptom of the deeper disease of capitalist society..."

"...subordinates human life and the planet itself to the insatiable drive for profit..."

"...the next 'isolated incident' may be a catastrophe from which there is no escape..."