TUESDAY APRIL 17 2001 US running out of oil refineries BY MARTIN WALLER THE US is facing a dire shortage of oil refineries because environment-conscious Americans, for all their fondness for gas-guzzling cars, do not wish to live near one. As a result the last grassroots refinery to be built in the US, by Marathon Oil in Garyville, Louisiana, was completed in 1976. The shortage of capacity, say industry observers, will mean high prices for petrol and heating oil for the appreciable future.

Of every four barrels of oil produced around the world, one is consumed in the US. Washington’s own forecasts see this consumption growing by 15 per cent over the next decade and by almost as much again by 2020.

The National Petroleum Refiners Association is pressing President Bush to make it easier to expand refineries, but even with an oil man in the White House it will be an uphill struggle.

In five years’ time the US introduces more stringent specifications for greener fuel. The oil industry says building the new plant to handle this must start now. Environmental laws mean construction permits are hard to come by and subject to lengthy consultation with often hostile locals

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,5-115620,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 16, 2001