[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.

[upchuck]

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

[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!

[GeronL]

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

[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.

[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.

[Flyer]

Demands that the Shell Bakersfield Refinery remain open intensified Friday, as Sen. Barbara Boxer joined a chorus of calls

A Leftist fighting to keep a refinery open.

I'll look for the sun to rise in the west tomorrow.

[taxesareforever]

This is the only time I have heard the California delegation demand something that is not enviromentally correct in their state. What's their problem? Don't they want everybody in California doing the Arrianna Huffington dance?

[capitan_refugio]

The Democrats in California, in their unholy alliance with the eco-nazis, have been hammering the petroleum industry for 40 years. They have closed promising areas for future exploration, they have shutdown the California offshore, they have over-regulated, and they have made the cost of doing business in California prohibitively expensive.

With your investor's and shareholder's money, it is not enouogh just to turn a profit. You have to provide a competative rate of return. The the company formerly known as Standard Oil of California (Chevron) bets the family farm on Kazakhstan rather than California, you have to know the jig is up.

[John Jorsett]

Suggest that we BUILD a refinery and let's see which side of the issue she ends up on.

[Coleus]

witch