Posted on 11/04/2025 5:31:35 AM PST by Red Badger
I would expect that investment has even been discouraged. The whole “climate change” movement has been a scam, as Trump has said, to cripple this industry.
The “rare earths” post I was replying to, is even a part of this. The abandonment of EVs would much reduce the need for rare earths.
Unfortunately, I look at your question and see a timeline far longer than even two presidential terms. This, as well as an ingrained mindset against using natural resources wisely.
If Greta gave us nothing else, this meme lives on.
Hahahahahahaha! I cannot think of a more fitting and appropriate tribute to an aging Swedish Scold than that!!!!!
Oh, we could, and probably will now, but it’s a long time to build a refinery for anything because of the regulations, approvals and greasing the skids (and palms) that HAS to be done.
If they start today, it might be 5-10 years before one ounce of rare earths are produced. Unless Trump can declare a National Security Emergency and get the rules set aside....................

;-)
The last Alaskan restrictions Biden put up have expired. and one day later we pump more crude than ever before.
COVFEFE bitches!
We need to do the same thing we did with the production of synthetic rubber in WW2
LNG is back up too!
While the US hasn’t recently built a significant new refinery from scratch, plenty of investments have gone into de-bottlenecking existing equipment and putting in additional processing. These increases have more than offset the shutdown of older, smaller, and less capable plants.
Adding on (versus building from scratch) can leverage existing infrastructure and personnel, power lines, pipelines, terminals, storage, and local attitudes to get permitting through.
The following shows 1990 through 2023 US capacities:
https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/refinerycapacity/table6.pdf
The private equity funding of oil and gas was heavily crippled by the rush to ESG and wind/solar. When those really smart banking guys found out that there was no money in that, they pivoted back to petroleum.
Thank you for better outlook than I expected. The sheer presumptuousness of the Biden regime’s policy wonks blows my mind.
They deliberately tried to destroy the petroleum industry that helped America lead the world for the sake of experimental “renewable energy” that proved to be unreliable in an infrastructure reliant upon dependable power.
Killing birds and whales with un-recyclable giant pinwheels that fail too quickly to justify their cost isn’t cool, either. Imagine where all that had gone under a Harris presidency.
National security requires getting our hands dirty. Tough.
Did you ever watch the HBO series “Rome”? Gaia was a smoke show, and she spent some time getting pumped.
The other strategic advantage for the US refining is the access to relatively cheap Natural Gas which fuels the refining processes. Also natural gas is often used to produce Hydrogen, the workhorse that takes sulfur and nitrogen out of the crude. Natural gas is second main cost in refining besides the crude itself.
Natural gas prices are seeing pressures from AI and crypto rush, along with exporting to Europe for political posturing. Still cheaper in US than most anywhere else.
Is there an article about the expiring Alaskan restrictions?
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