How many new oil refineries have been built in the last ten years?
The price of gas depends on the oil refineries volume of production in producing gasoline.
WE have lots of oil but not enough oil refineries to produce the gas that we need.
The oil Companies are creating their own monopoly and we are all falling for it...
that would be ZERO.
It is certainly a very important factor.
How so? Do not pollution laws and tort liability have anything to do with building a new refinery in the U.S. cost prohibitive?
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ZERO- Tree Huggers and Environmental Wackos won't allow them to build, drill, explore even though there is a LOT of oil in the ground.
Also depends a lot on demand for that fuel.
Get the greenies and nutcase democrats out of the way and they would build and produce more.
How are we falling for it when it is ridiculous laws and lawsuits that keep them from expanding, like a LOT of other industries. Like lumber production. Thanks to laws passed during Clintons term a LOT of timber is sitting there being unused and the regulations passed closed a lot of lumber plants as well.
SgtSilicon wrote in alt.autos.gm
No, that has never been a real problem.
It's a manipulated market and has been for "a long time". The miracle is that it has taken this long for them to manipulate the price this high. Who knows why they left it low before, but it has very little to do with "supply and demand".
Your premise makes little sense. IF that were the case we'd be paying $10 a gallon.
The environmental laws in the US are indeed the primary cause for the loss of refining capacity. Beginning in 1970 the US government passed laws that essentially lead to the exportation of the pollution from the US, along with the jobs produced. The production of steel, aluminum, lead, zinc, chemicals, cement, paint, and tanneries etc. was sent overseas. By 1981 the cost of rebuilding a refinery, in accordance with new environmental regulations, was simply not cost effective and the refinery was shut down. Refineries can be build much less expensively in other countries. ALL new refineries since that time have been built overseas. It is much more cost effective to simply import the refined products. Gasoline for instance has been imported into the US for years and the amount grows every year. Refiners in the US are nun mostly to produce these oil derived products use by industry in the US, with gasoline as necessary by-product, much as it was in the early part of the twentieth century.
mike hunt
Dick C wrote:
Jak wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
It's a combination of things. First off, there is no such thing as effective antitrust laws, which put too much power in the hands of large companies. Then there are some environmental laws which go too far. Much of the complaints about environmental and lawyer problems are perpetuated by large corporations and their own CORPORATE LAWYERS. There is little doubt the refinery problem is a deliberate and legal way to increase the price of gasoline. This is pretty much the same kind of garbage Enron pulled a couple of years in California during the manipulated energy crisis. I am always amused by statements of shortages when there is more than enough for everyone, if you will pay a Kings ransom for it. Once upon a time a shortage actually meant there were no supplies available, but thanks to the dumbing down of Americans, anything the spin doctors say, is accepted as fact.
We believe you, doctor. ;)
mike hunt
tango wrote:
And the "facts" supporting your view are what exactly ?????
It is a fact that no new refineries have been built in the USA in over 15 years.
It is a fact that the North American consumer is buying more gasoline today than ever before.
It is a fact that gasoline specifications are now being mandated by many individual states in such a way as to both require costly refinery upgrades and different fuel blends for different markets. It is also a fact that many refineries have closed down rather than attempt to meet the new state and federal government requirements.
The US gasoline market is demonstrating high price inelasticity, which means that people on the whole are not buying significantly less even as the price goes up.
Many people complain about high prices, but few people do the things in their own personal control which would reduce their use of fuel and thus the money they spend on it.
The foolishness of the majority of people explains more than does the machinations of corporations.
John
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