You really think demand has gone down? There has been an abundant supply this whole year, and price has been going up. Supply and demand are not driving prices in this market anymore.
Also, I know the industry employees a lot, but why are most of the people along the Gulf Coast where all these refineries are receiving lower wages then most of the US?
And, no I would not want to leave these operations in the Gulf open during a Hurricane. You are bordering on a personal attack (If you have any sense), I would hope this conversation could continue without that.
As far as the government getting involved in anything, I think they are already too involved in everyone's life. We have no voice anymore, and we have no representation. They are their own entity, and it is controlled by greed and money.
I do not think you understand how oil field deplete and how continued expansion is needed just to maintain the flow rate.
Find an active rail line to the North Slope.
Keep in mind that most record cold days in Indiana are at least 70 degrees warmer than the average winter day at Barrow.
Actually, crude oil probably does get to Indiana via pipeline, it also has been known to travel by truck, rail, barge, and boat (maybe not to Whiting). When you deal with the logistics of moving natural gas and condensate across a state which, if split down the middle would make Texas the third largest state, numerous mountain ranges, and through temperatures and wilderness unimaginable to most of the population of the lower 48, a pipeline is the only way to go.
Without the Alsaka pipeline, the North slope development which has occurred would not have been economically viable, simply because of the logistics involved in getting the oil to market.
A natural gas pipeline has been in the works since the '70s, meeting environmental opposition every step of the way. Attempting to build, operate, and maintain a railroad in that terrain and climate to ship natural gas/condensate would be far more difficult and expensive, and meet at least as much environmentalist obstruction as the pipeline.