CA: Boxer adds muscle to fight over refinery

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 4/9/04 | Erin Waldner

[Eva]

You have to realize that there must be more to this closing than meets the eye. Think huge environmental mess such as leaking MTBE tanks. That is only one possibility, but no company shuts down a profitiable facility and refuses to sell it for no reason.

[Carry_Okie]

She must be desperate.

[NormsRevenge]

sure glad I don't drive a diesel.

[upchuck]

Kali, where new refinery capacity hasn't been built in many, many years.

[kenth]

You'll get hit indirectly anyway, since the transportation industry depends on it and will pass the increase on down to us.

[kcvl]

"The plant must remain open until a buyer is found and a sale is completed. Otherwise, consumers will pay the prices," Boxer wrote in a letter to FTC Chairman Timothy Muris.

So what are you waiting for Barbara Boxer? Buy it! If you think you can DEMAND that something stay open and you aren't the one PAYING for it, then either shut up or BUY IT!

[elbucko]

Think huge environmental mess such as leaking MTBE tanks.

That's quite possibly the reason to close but not sell. That MTBE was some nasty stuff. If a clean up is needed, the state should sue the Sierra Club and all other environmental organizations and foundations that had a hand in imposing MTBE use in California. In the meantime, the refinery can operate.

[NormsRevenge]

Good point.

[Eva]

It's the only thing that makes sense. There has to be a reason to shut the place down and not sell. If they sold they would have to clean up.

[GeronL]

When Democrats are fighting FOR an oil refinery, you know something is rotten in Denmark. Something stinks. Follow the money.

[kcvl]

They (Boxer & Democat/Liberals) don't want high fuel prices, they don't want us to get oil from the Middle East, they don't want us to drill in ANWR so where do they suggest that we get our fuel?

They have become a professional *itching party.

[GeronL]

MTBE, the environmentalists and government forced the industry to put that in the gas and the industry will soon be found liable for the pollution it wroughts.

Incredible.

[GeronL]

There has to be a reason to shut the place down and not sell

A- Its not profitable? Old technology.. inefficient...

[nightdriver]

The airheaded Sen. Boxer is again barking up the wrong tree.

Her problem is NOT with Shell/Texaco, but rather with the VERY democrat State Attourney General, Mr. Lockyer.

He was the one who forced Shell/Texaco to divest themselves of the refinery and he is the one who was instrumental in putting the moratorium on any more oil drilling in California, especially offshore.

Look for them to next RULE that oil companies have to make fuel products out of thin air.

Typical liberal non-think. Sen. Boxer is gloriously unencumbered with the thought process.

[DB]

What makes you think it's profitable?

All the enviromental regulations, fees and taxes makes one not want to do business in this state.

[kcvl]

The oil companies' lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute, thinks the solution lies in increasing supply.

The group's chief economist, John Felmy, blamed the state's strict environmental laws for the dearth of refineries, whose numbers have dwindled from 33 in 1990 to 22 today.

As companies have shuttered their sites as the state's crude oil output has dwindled, Felmy said they've been hampered from regulations limiting expansion and construction of the massive fuel-producing sites.

``Your regulations make California a unique island, so when you raise prices, only a few refineries can supply you,'' Felmy said in a previous conference call with reporters. ``We need more refinery capacity in California and the U.S., but we face enormous challenges to build them.

``Where would we put them? We regularly face opposition from environmental groups, and we've had very low rates of return on our investments.''

In his presentation before the panel, Felmy recommended a streamlining of the permitting process for refinery expansion, which mirrors suggestions by the Energy Commission and the Auto Club.

Felmy also suggested that states need to adopt more complementary formulation standards. There are currently 18 different types of gasoline sold in the United States, with California's unique blend being both the cleanest and most expensive.

By reducing the number of so-called ``boutique fuels,'' either by converting other states to California's standards or the state switching to a different formulation, Felmy suggested that the state could import other blends of gas when supplies get short.

California's recent spikes came as refiners experienced maintenance problems as they switched from winter to summer formulation gas, which tapped reserves and sent wholesale prices soaring.

[Eva]

I read on another thread that the refinery was profitable. I assumed that was true. I have not heard otherwise. All of the refineries in CA are old so, maybe this one is particularly bad, but I think that are worse.

[kenth]

The other insane thing - I lost count as to how many times in the past I've heard a whiny leftist complain how backward we are compared to Europe. They thought we should be paying 3-5 bucks a gallon for gas in order to reduce usage and fund their little leftist agendas. Yet, when prices do go up a tiny bit, they lose their minds and go on to whine about the things you mentioned. They are certifiably insane.

[kcvl]

A Shell spokesman denied Boxer's accusation. The company plans to close the 72-year-old refinery at the end of September because crude oil supplies in the San Joaquin Valley are drying up and the refinery has not been profitable in two of the last three years, said spokesman Cameron Smyth.

"We have stated repeatedly that we would be more than willing to entertain any credible offer for the sale of the refinery," Smyth added. "To date we have not received any, and any prospective buyer will still face the same decline in crude availability that we face."