The Case for New Oil Refineries

The Case for New Oil Refineries
Dateline USA....Wanted: a US Presidential candidate with a solid plan to rebuild and re-industrialize the greatest nation on Earth. A candidate with the ... audacity ... to fight for increased production of domestic oil and gas resources, clean coal, perhaps even nuclear power. A leader with a roadmap back to the future ... so that the US can again become a great producing rather than a consuming country. A practical visionary ready to fight for super-fast trains, factories in blighted urban areas, rural broadband, and so on and so forth....The candidate could start by calling for the fast-track construction of new oil refineries, or the expansion of existing refineries. Increasing refinery capacity is among the most affordable, effective and reliable ways to increase supplies and lower prices. But emissions controls and mandates for specific gasoline blends have forced many refineries to close and made building new oil refineries very difficult. In fact, no new ones have been built in the US for nearly 30 years--a gift to OPEC.The Energy Information Agency estimates energy use will rise 19.2 percent to 24.8 million barrels per day by 2020 while refinery capacity will rise only 9.4%. This means refining capacity will only be 100,000 barrels a day more in 2020 than it was in 1981.The economic impacts of higher energy prices are alarming: a loss of $1 trillion in economic output and up to five million workers unemployed.