The old refinery dodge

[Roland99]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/27/perspective/vandoorn/15_09_435_26_07.txt

Clearly Big Oil could afford not only to slap up a new refinery or two but probably an army of them and not even make a memorable entry in the checkbook.

It comes down to this: Oil companies keep prices up artificially. The weak refineries ---- and they probably are weak and old ---- are part of the mechanism of the acquisitive gene. All the reasons given for high prices are, when examined for sense, nonsense.

The real reason is greed. Nothing more than that. The companies can trot out every marketing person, every academic, every politician ---- sycophants of every stripe ---- to intone the gravity of supply and demand, the role of OPEC, seasonal adjustments, refineries at capacity, and they add up to nothing. Just smoke. Greed is the constant.

Come on, gas companies. Cough up. If your refineries are to "blame," build new ones. The regulators swear they'll help with your permits, as if you needed any help. And by your own declaration, environmentalists haven't the juice to stop you.

It's time for opinions like this to make it to the pages of the NYT and the WaPo. You'd think those uber-liberal, commie-loving rags would be all over this. ;)

[bonito]

1. Ding ding ding we have a winner!

The jokes on us caus msm wont lead the sheep to truth.

[IChing]

5. Chavez hasn't taken over the media in this country or

haven't you heard
that is why we have such
a "free Press? that reports so "fairly"?.

[ben_meyers]

2. AZcleanfuels has been working on one for about ten years

They "hope" to be up by late 2011. I think they said that it would be the 1st new one in 25-30 years in this country. Most other plants have been upgraded and expanded over the years but new ones are needed where the populations have shifted, like AZ.

http://www.arizonacleanfuels.com/news/2007/032707_Yuma%20Sun.htm

[Roland99]

7. You'd think that would be making news like a missing blonde girl....

[Canuckistanian]

3. It's all us "libruls" preventing them from bulding new refineries

Didn't you get the memo from Soros (may His name be praised)?

[Jim Warren]

4. I was in business

I made and sold things. There were other businesses like mine around me that did the same.
I did a good job and tried to get people to like my things and when they did I knew I better have enough when they came because if they didn't they would go to another business near me.

If there were no other businesses near me but the same number of customers I wouldn't have had to work as hard being good at what I did. If I ran out once in a while they would have had to come back when I had more. I then could have made less and charged those who wanted what I had MORE it they really wanted what I had.

Nymex Crude Future 63.27 close 5/29/07

[poverlay]

6. Thanks for the reminder. I just read an idiotic(to put it mildly) ltte in the

Arizona Republic deriding the environmentalists for stopping new refineries. I have answered in the strongest possible terms. Hopefully it will get published. I doubt it though. The AZ Republican is unlikely to do other than pander to its 'repuggy readers as usual.

[IADEMO2004]

8. It couldn't be worse than this from Iowa's Rep.Steve King

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18371711&BRD=2703&PAG=461&dept_id=555144&rfi=6


Here's a very short list of how our hostage takers have taken us captive:


* Hurting oil refineries - Environmentalist liberals have restricted us from building a new refinery anywhere in America since 1976. Because of this, we have 148 operational refineries right now, less than half of the 324 refineries from20 years ago.


* Mandating gasoline blends - In 1990, environmental liberals changed the Clean Air Act to require refiners to change blends of gasoline between summer and winter and to produce "boutique" fuels for specific markets. It doesn't take an economist to understand that these requirements cause unnecessary seasonal and regional shortages.


* Stopping us from exploring the Artic National Wildlife Refuge(ANWR), the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Virginia - The liberal left has laid down on the tracks to stop the production of billions of barrels of oil in these areas where high-tech pumping techniques have proven no harm to the environment.

[Roland99]

10. What a moran.

Refinery consolidation has done more damage than any environmental regulations could even begin to think of doing.

[IADEMO2004]

13. Exxon VP two weeks after Katrina

http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/archives/2005/09/exxons_views_on.html

Exxon predicts U.S. oil demand may begin to fall by 2030, which means the company faces a limited window for return. More importantly, though, while the number of refineries has fallen since 1986, U.S. refining capacity has increased by 25 percent. That's what Cohen refers to as "creep." That is, refining technology has improved, allowing refiners to operate more efficiently.

"We're able to produce much more with the same stuff."

The creep has kept pace with rising oil demand, at least until the past year or two. Even so, from Exxon's standpoint it's hard to justify the cost of investing in building a new U.S. refinery. I doubt even tax incentives would sway Exxon's opinion.

[poverlay]

14. It some ways it was worse, if you can believe such a thing. Same retarded spew, only

with worse grammar.

[sendero]

9. Despite the claims of the "free marketeers"..

... there are no free markets where collusion is involved, and collusion is exactly what we have here. If there was competition of the sort that "free marketeers" claim is the lifeblood of capitalism, there would already be several refineries under construction.

Just another big lie they tell you to siphon your wallet "legally".

[pampango]

11. Here's an article from the Christian Science Monitor in 2005.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0921/p11s02-usec.html

"For the past two decades, deregulation and low profits have combined to push the industry into consolidation. Partly because of environmental regulations, it was cheaper to expand existing refineries than to build new ones."

"...the furthest along is Arizona Clean Fuels Yuma, which aims to locate a high-tech oil refinery in the Arizona desert. The hurdles are high. The company is still lining up investors to pay the $2.5 billion price tag. It has to hire biologists to ensure the new plant will not hurt an endangered lizard. A local clean-air group is questioning the project."

One thing has changed, if it really existed in the first place and that is "low profits".

[hootinholler]

12. It's win win for refiners

Don't build new because they are so expensive, so complain about how the regulations are preventing you from building a new refinery while raking in obscene profits because of lack of capacity. Eventually the sheep will relax the pollution standards and you get what you want.

-Hoot