What is preventing oil corporations from increasing the number of refineries they currently have?

If you are going to claim its the fault of the Democrats or Liberals you better have something factual to back up what you are saying.What is preventing oil corporations from increasing the number of refineries they currently have?
Their need for record profits!!!! its that simple right now they are making record profits as is. There formula is complete without adding a thing to it!!!! chow steph f.pWhat is preventing oil corporations from increasing the number of refineries they currently have?
Yes the Liberals, democraps and the Rinos have BLOCKED legislation on drilling in ANWR and off our coasts.


The whacked out environmentalists laws, the endangered species debacle and thousands of other needless obstructions placed in the way of progress have crippled ALL industries and the oil companies in the USA!


That IS one of the HUGE factors of companies going overseas!





Don't get me wrong, No one wants another Love Canal, or the demise of species of animals. But the restrictions and fallacies that the greenies and their co-conspirators in the demonrat party have done everything to tie up all progress in court proceedings for decades upon decades.


Those wackos have even stopped home owners from building their home on their own land because the wackos had SEEDED the property with titmouse droppings in a effort to keep a home from being built! Supposedly the mouse was declared endangered, there are millions of them but thats not how laws work.
Oil companies don't need to be the ones creating the refineries.





But the answer is normal people are the ones who stop refineries from being created, conservatives and liberals.





If you have ever seen an oil refinery they are horrible looking things. No one wants them in their state so everyone fights like hell to keep them out. But of course they would make prices go down so oil companies are not too down about it.
The free market.





In other words, the refineries they have now are meeting demand and are running at full capacity. Thus they are getting every possible financial benefit from their investment that they can.





Why would they build more refineries, when they know these refineries won't be run at full capacity?





There is a lot of attempt to place political blame, but the loss of oil refineries was largely a product of Reagan's deregulation in the 1980's, which led to corporations closing and consolidating refineries to reduce their costs.
Because the Democrats and Liberals tie up the process to get those refineries built in the first place.





They need permission from the government to build.





Considering how the tree huggers tie up any kind of construction maybe you will understand why they are not being built.





Case in point my hometown needed more power to they were going to build a power plant and the liberals said NO!


So they were going to build a cogeneration plant againt liberals said NO!


With thier protest the lines and power plant haven't been built and that is being going on for 10 years +.
I have heard that it's due to the extreme expense involved because of emissions regulations that the old refineries have been able to avoid through grandfather clauses. It is due to legislation brought about by mainly Democrats and liberals, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, just maybe a little too restrictive at a time when growth and demand make additional refineries desirable.
There have been thousands of permits issued to expand, update, and improve existing refineries since the Clean Air Act went into effect. They could just as easily get permits to build new refineries if they wanted to. The oil companies prefer to expand and modernize existing refineries since it is cheaper than building new ones.
It is actually 100% the conservative vote that has caused the over all economic colaspe of our economy .You can tell a tree by the fruit it bares. The fruit of this economy is very bitter for many.


Why did Haliburton move much of it's oporations to the middle east? Big oil only cares about profit. They will sell out the USA to the highest bidder (China -India etc.) believe me.


I can not compare a free market attitude to being lied to and cheated . It is one thing to make an honest living and another to lie and cheat for profit.
They do all of the time. They are opposed to building them in the US without getting lots of tax dollars to do it. If they build them some place else they can use cheaper labor so they do not want to build them here.





Plus, just because they have not added new ones here does not mean that they have not increased capacity here by many hundreds of percent. They have automated here to avoid paying our wage.





People still blame it on activists in the 60s. Not true any more. This is a global economy.
Themselves...





And also the need to do it in the first place.





When oil companies were grilled during the previous raising gas prices, they stated that refining capacity was good and that it wasn't a problem. I think it was like 85% capacity running.





MY bad.. it was 88% capacity


http://www.ogj.com/display_article/33271鈥?/a>


Oil and Gas journal





Oh my.. and U.S. drilling continues to INCREASE.


http://www.ogj.com/display_article/33307鈥?/a>





___


What a shame.. those that blame environmentalists for refineries and drilling (see links above) can provide nothing to back their rants. Unless they can find it in a Rush Limbaugh transcript that is.
It's pretty common knowledge that the environmentalists are the reason no new refineries have been built.





And which party do they funnel money to?





Yep, you guessed it.





http://www.acuf.org/issues/issue109/comm鈥?/a>


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/bu鈥?/a>





EDIT: NothingC: You are wrong, and wrong.


US oil production is at it's lowest since the 1940's


http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/m鈥?/a>
In 1975, then President Jimmy Carter signed into law changes in the EPA that make it next to impossible to build a new Gas/Oil Separation (Distillation) plant.


That no one in congress has had the mindset or brilliance to repeal these laws since shows the miopic apathy of ALL of our elected officials.
Your Congressmen. Clinton declared national parks off limits, Johnson banned all offshore drilling in California, Carter set limits on refineries. Who has majority in Congress? We are not talking about a drilling platform over Old Faithful, most people never know drilling is in an area. Congress was supposed to vote last week on relief measures, new drilling rights......gee....4th of July NEXT Friday, but they are so overworked need the week off. Hell with us, our taxes paying for them all to fly home and a week off. How many would love a paid week off and free round trip airfare for the week? I am raising MY hand.
It's neither party (though both are complicit)... and secondly, it's not about profit, it's about control.





To all you who said ';environmentalists'; you are way off, and you watch way too much television. Do you really think the oil corps care what environmentalists think? Do you think environmentalists have the resources to compete with trans-national energy corporations over influence in Washington?





The only time ';environmental'; issues have influence is when they're being used as a false pretense for more global taxes and restrictions (carbon credits, anyone?).





The guy who said ';free markets';... wow, do you really believe that the global oil market is free and open? Have you ever heard of the IMF, or OPEC?





Those who said ';themselves,'; you are closer. They make a lot more money by just sitting on those leases and not drilling.





But the real answer is the oil companies are taking their marching orders from the globalists who ultimately control the oil market, (as well as the World Bank, WTO, the UN, the CFR, the Federal Reserve, BOTH our political parties, and a whole lot of media companies).





It's about market manipulation, and the oil companies all have to follow the same playbook in order for it to work. The globalists are like the coaching staff. Do you understand?





Econ 101 students: SUPPLY AND DEMAND IS NOT IN EFFECT HERE. DEMAND HAS DROPPED, SUPPLY IS EXCESSIVE, AND PRICES ARE STILL GOING UP. THE OIL MARKET IS DEFYING THE LAWS OF ANY FREE MARKET, THEREFORE THE MARKET IS BEING MANIPULATED.





Please watch this, it might help:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEsEvb1Ws鈥?/a>
It is largely because the oil companies do not want to invest in what will become excess capacity one the crude supplies start drying up, which is starting to happen now. There are still substantial oil reserves, but they are harder to access, and more expensive to produce.
It would cost at least a Billion Dollars to build a Refinery. Imagine how much that would cut into executive salaries.





The average executive making a billion dollars or so a year could never be expected to go back to a 9 figure salary. After all this is still the Bush administration.
The Democrats have blocked the building of more refineries and the drilling of oil in areas that we know there is oil this is a proven fact by their votes in congress and the senate..
It's actually more cost effective to upgrade existing refineries rather than build new ones, which is what the industry has been doing for years.
It is the environmental lobbies that pressure Democrats in Congress. It matters not who has control of the Senate or House; it doesn't take a majority to halt progress.
Dems are blocking the new drilling but the environmentalists are blocking the new refineries.
They have applied for 17 in the last 14 years. The democratic control state legislators and the evironazi have stopped them all
Liberals and ecologists and the facts are 40 years of history.
Liberal Dems support excessive EPA regulation that is what has stopped any new refineries from being built.
Congress and local states, who put regulations into place and zoning laws.
cost according to the oil compaines and environmental and tax reasons are part of it
Tree huggers. Environmental restrictions have once again impeded clear thinking.
Liberal Eco-Freaks.
Eco-fascists.
Their shareholders won't let them lower their dividends?
Time and money. The demand for gas is dropping, so they don't actually need to produce more. Most refineries have excess capacity, so they can increase their production for occasional shortages.





In the long run, they would build more refineries, but only if they are sure they will get a decent return on the hundreds of millions it takes to build and operate one.





The intermediate solution is to expand existing facilities.
Laissez-faire economics.





aka: Supply and Demand