Refining Capacity Saps Gasoline Availability, Expert Warns CongressSmall, 1970s “tea kettles” closed; new building stymied
WASHINGTON -- A day after House Democrats voted down legislation to increase
gasoline supplies by building refineries, an independent expert cautioned
Congress that a lack of “refining
capacity is a major constraint on supply.”
One partisan argument against the refinery bill held that years-long delays in
permitting new refineries are a myth.
Another staple objection said companies were, in fact, actually
shuttering their refineries as a ploy to increase demand.
It’s true that “the number of
U.S.
refineries has gone down by about half since the 1970s,” said Daniel Yergin
of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. But
“many of these were the small, ‘tea-kettle’ refineries that were intended
to take advantage of the small-refiner bias under the 1970s control system.”
And Yergin told the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday that “the
building of new refineries…has been hampered by costs, siting and
permitting.”
Added Energy Information Administrator Guy Caruso, the seasonal price-spreads on
gasoline "have become subject to much wider swings … as excess refinery
capacity has dwindled."
"Excess capacity in the refining industry, like that for crude oil
production, has been shrinking as demand as grown," he said.
On Wednesday,
185 Democrats voted against the Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act, a bill
designed to bring more refineries on line and more gasoline into the
U.S.
supply system. The bill, which required 290 votes to pass on a fast-track, fell
short when only 13 Democrats joined 224 Republicans in supporting it.
“It will be
back,” predicted U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
“High prices are a hardship, but dry pumps are a disaster.”
The legislation,
offered by Barton and U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., gives the Environmental
Protection Agency the authority to convene all the players in all
U.S.
government agencies responsible for issuing permits to develop a facility and
help them coordinate and expedite their schedules so that decisions on permits
can move efficiently.
It also directs
the president to suggest at least three closed military bases as suitable sites
for new refineries, one of which must be designated for biofuel refining, while
preserving local authority to make final siting decisions on closed bases.
No agency or
developer would be permitted to short-circuit environmental compliance, and
private citizens are guaranteed the right to appeal a permitting process
decision.
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