Quote:
Originally Posted by Rajoo
Who is the we? Aren't they private companies, the epitome of Republican capitalism?
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You really aren't that naive, are you?
Here's a bit of info for you:
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=29&t=6
As of January 1, 2022, there were 130 operable petroleum refineries in the United States.
The newest refinery in the United States is the Texas International Terminals 45,000 b/cd refinery in Channelview, Texas, which was operable on January 1, 2022, but actually started operating in February, 2022.
However, the newest refinery with significant downstream unit capacity is Marathon's facility in Garyville, Louisiana. That facility came online in 1977 with an initial atmospheric distillation unit capacity of 200,000 b/cd, and as of January 1, 2022, it had a capacity of 585,000 b/cd.
Capitalism isn't "Republican". It is the most efficient method for converting capital, however. Since most energy producers are public companies, they also have shareholders to answer to.
I've written about this before, so I'll point you to
this article:
Chevron CEO Mike Wirth does not expect another oil refinery to be built in the United States ever again, due to federal government policies. The last significant refinery built in the United States was in 1976. (A small refinery came online in 2020 in North Dakota). Over the last two years, due to reduced demand from the pandemic and Presidnt Biden’s stated policy to reduce the demand for petroleum products, U.S. refineries have been shut down or repurposed to become biofuel refineries. In a business where investments have a payout period of a decade or more, it is unlikely for investment to be spent on policies where the demand is to be reduced. Wirth stated rhetorically, “How do you go to your board, how do you go to your shareholders and say ‘we’re going to spend billions of dollars on new capacity in a market that is, you know, the policy is taking you in the other direction.”
That's the crux of it. You're not going to get additional domestic refining capacity unless a lot of things change. Those things include letting the market decide when to move away from petroleum and toward alternative fuels, making environmental regulations more realistic for the refining industry, and public policy that encourages energy sources from ALL alternatives rather than singling out and making the production of oil and petroleum products more challenging, while subsidizing other energy sources.