Posted on 03/13/2008 5:25:14 PM PDT by Kaslin
Energy Policy: When America's biggest oil refiner contemplates putting almost a third of its refineries on the market, Congress should sit up and take notice. The business climate it has created is hurting our economy.
Valero will probably sell three of its 17 refineries this year and maybe two more later to focus on its core operations amid what CEO Bill Klesse acknowledged on Tuesday is a weak economy.
But maybe that's because the environment for the energy business in the U.S. has turned downright hostile.
Upstream, oil drilling is off-limits, crimping supply and driving prices ever higher. Downstream, refiners are hit by not only high energy prices, but also bureaucratic regulations, environmental lobbies and special interests that make moving to Asia, where economic growth is still valued, more attractive.
The sorry fact that no new refinery has been built in America since 1983 has been cited so many times that we would have thought someone in Washington would have done something about it by now. But no — it just keeps getting worse.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Yep, they’re hurting. In my area, there are several Valero gas stations that are closed and the weeds are growing...
What does this mean?
I remember Cheyney saying that more refineries had to be built back in 2000, but the gutless wonders in Congress and state govt.s who worship to the envirowhackos put the kibosh on that.
Yeah, and what did Bush say to those gutless wonders in Congress and states and envirowackos?
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Valero Energy Corp., the third-biggest U.S. refiner, yesterday said fourth-quarter profit more than tripled as the company benefited from its ability to process less-expensive sour crude oil. Valero Chief Executive William Greehey has said the company plans to add more capability to process sour crude.and was being considered the most likely buyer for some refineries that Citgo was trying to sell
So perhaps its selling some refineries, so it can get cash buy others that are a better fit for it
It is no longer profitable to be in the oil business in the US. They have to reorganize overseas and export from their new homes to the US. This leaves the US as vulnerable as Germany was in WWII ... with no domestic petroleum source. Plus we are shipping our dollars overseas to pay for what we used to produce at home.
Cancel that last post of mine, I just noticed the news I quoted was from Feb 2005
Well your gutless wonder hero, ron paul, hasn't said anything about refineries, he more interested in using 18th century pieces of paper in fighting terrorists.
Holy Toledo.
It means that every crisis in the oil or gas market is created BY the Congress, the EPA and some State Governments. And it means that you have very, very little hope of ever seeing unleaded gas in the $2 range again since the solutions to the problem run contrary to the agenda of the envirowackos and the Democrat Party who hates you and your car.
I’m sure its nothing personal but they would be perfectly happy if you just died so you could stop using so much oil.
Bush put all of the solutions to our energy problems in the 2001 energy bill (you know, the one written by Dick Cheney and his Big Oil buddies?).
Unfortunately, after it went down to defeat following the defection/treason of Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords it was completely ignored by Bush for the next 7 years.
In the original bill, not only did it call for CAFE standards to be raised and for mandates on new renewable energy to be produced but it also called for drilling in ANWR/Gulf Coast/Baja and the N Mountain States for crude and natural gas as well as the improvement of infrastructure in electrical transmission lines, natural gas lines and the building of new refineries in coastal states to handle future demand.
Bush has used the word ‘ANWR’ maybe 7 times since early 2001. And he hasn’t used them this year except to point out that he isn’t going to be drilling there despite the incredible pain his laissez faire policy is having on consumers and the fact that gas hikes have more than twice offset his tax cuts from 2001/2003 and thrown the country into a recession.
Funny that he doesn’t seem to give a damn about this. Being an ‘oil guy’ and all. If only he were the oilrig humping neanderthal that the Left promised he would be back in 2000. If only.
So you are saying it was jumping jim's fault and not Bush's. OH BTW, some 7 years ago 9/11 happened.
BTW, how come these solutions that Bush first proposed and you endorse were slammed by the media, instead of moaning in an echo chamber why don't you get the truth out to your fellow citizens.
“gutless wonder hero, ron paul, hasn’t said anything about refineries, he more interested in using 18th century pieces of paper in fighting terrorists.”
you’re quite right. our Constitution is a worthless piece.
I just bought some shares in Tesoro in advance of the summer driving season. I'm betting on oil coming down.
Not hardly Racer1, you would be amazed at how little the margin is between what refinerys charge and what they have to pay for the product. (Far less than almost any other industry.) The ones that really come out ahead are the trading companies that drive up the price artificially drive up prices—they contribute nothing to finding oil and gas and contribute nothing to the downstream business. If you don’t like this, you really won’t like gore’s carbon credit fraud scam....it will make Oil Traders look like saints.
Ethanol refineries have been built in the past 2 years- about 160+ as far as I read in the past week. They seem to have no problem getting past all the enviros, etc.
He could talk til he's blue in the face, and it won't make any difference. He HAS chided Congress on not allowing for drilling in ANWR, but unless there is legislation that he can sign, there's not a lot more he can do. This is where the make-up of Congress is most important. We need more conservatives who can fight against the Democrats, the Enviro-weenies, and unfortunately the RINOS in Congress.
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