Reply #2: Refinery shortage is joke [View All]

[seasat]

Some Repug a while back went off with me on how Refineries have declined due to us environmentalists. I went on the DOE website and did a search to find out what they had to say about the decline in refinery numbers. The first big decline occurred back in the early 80s when Reagan stopped federal subsidies to smaller refineries. About 100 refineries closed because they could not operate with out the subsidies. The second big decline was due to mergers in the 90s. The companies figured they could make more profit by closing older refineries and upgrading the new ones. If I recall the figures correctly, the cost of environmental compliance was only about 5% of the profit of the Refinery operation ... not revenue, but profit. Therefore, we're now going to reward oil companies that are making obscene profits with another gimmie and it won't make a difference in gas prices.