05 October 2012, once again I read a mainstream news media article about high gas prices, and they state that: “Given that a new refinery has not been built since 1976…..”-CNN/Fortune
CNN, you’re a big FAIL! You moronic U.S. main stream media, yes, there have been new refineries built since 1976!
The information concerning new fuel refineries in the United States comes directly from the U.S. Energy Information Agency!
According to the USEIA, at least 12 refineries have been built since 1976! The latest refinery to go online is in Douglas, Wyoming, in 2008!!!
Those 12 refineries are all ‘simple’, meaning they convert oil into fuels on the ‘first run’. A ‘complex’ refinery uses hydrocracking (which uses the hydrogen, usually from natural gas, aka Feedstock) to squeeze more fuel out of ‘first run’ fuels.
And there are more refineries in the works (as I’ve said before, Obama is a true oil man), like the new DSO (Diesel/naptha) refinery being built 16 miles south of Williston, North Dakota!
According to Dakota Oil Processing LLC, the new Williston refinery could pump out a max of 8,000 barrels per day of ultra-low sulfur DSO (this is good news for the trucking industry, and people with efficient Diesel cars)!
Dakota Oil Processing hopes to have the refinery up and running by the end of 2013.
And it’s not just new refineries, but several older refineries that had been closed for years, have been rebuilt and restarted!
Examples: The Orion Refinery in Louisiana, upgraded and reopened in 1998. And a refinery in Corpus Cristi, Texas, upgraded from a ‘simple’ refinery to a ‘complex’ one in 1983.
As of 01 January 2012, there are 144 operating refineries in the U.S. However, there could be a lot more.
According to the USEIA, the oil industry has “permanently” shut down approximately 69 U.S. refineries (including Puerto Rico). The majority of those closings took place in the 1990s.
And that’s the kicker, it’s the oil industry that shut those plants down, not the government! The website, Public Citizen, states that it’s all about getting more of your money: “…the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded in March 2001 that oil companies had intentionally withheld supplies of gasoline from the market as a tactic to drive up prices—all as a ‘profit-maximizing strategy.’ A May 2004 U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report also found that mergers in the oil industry directly led to higher prices—and this report did not even include the large mergers after the year 2000, such as ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips. Yet, just one week after Hurricane Katrina, the FTC approved yet another merger of refinery giants—Valero Energy and Premcor—giving Valero 13% of the national market share. These actions, while costing consumers billions of dollars in overcharges, have not been challenged by the U.S. government.”