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Who Wants a
Refinery in Their Backyard?
6/28/2008
 Joe Pitts is the leading
sponsor of HR 2279, a bill that promotes the construction of oil refineries on
at least three decommissioned military bases. The bill has not moved from
committee because the majority and Republican and Democratic Congress men and
women question the validity of Pitts’ assumption that oil would be available for
refining.
According to Pitts, the bill is
intended to expedite the expansion the country’s oil refining capacity. However,
it is indisputable that the supply of imported oil is shrinking and the ability
to develop new producing oil fields along America’s coastlines is in doubt.
Big oil has owned the right to drill
along the 20% of the Gulf coastline for thirty years and has not done so because
of the excessive cost of production and the lack of evidence that enough
reserves are present to make drilling worthwhile.
Pitts’ assumption that gas prices
can be suppressed by increasing America’s output of oil is wrong. Currently, the
U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day of which we produce 5 million
barrels. Best estimates of expanding coastal drilling indicate that we could
produce only an addition 1 million barrels a day.
Currently, the nation’s refineries
are operating at 90 to 95 percent of capacity which is very efficient. Industry
analysts contend that it is much more cost-effective to expand additional
refining facilities than to build new ones, especially when it is the intent of
Congress to decrease the nation’s use of petroleum products.
 Further, Pitts’ new refineries will
take a decade to bring on-line and by the time they are ready to produce
gasoline, they may be obsolete. Pitts’ bill cannot impact the price of gasoline
in the short term and his assumption that Americans will continue to rely on a
price-volatile, pollution generating fuel for transportation and electricity
generation is absurd.
According to the New York Times,
“Most oil companies support the Republican position and are particularly eager
for access to the eastern gulf, noting that the water in some parts of it is
shallow and drilling would be easy.”
Contributors to Joe Pitts’
re-election campaigns include large contributions from big oil. Joe Pitts has
voted in lock-step with the oil-profiteering administration of Bush and Cheney.
At the same time he has ignored the needs of diversifying our energy resources
and has voted against alternative energy incentives.
With this bill, Pitts has made
it perfectly clear again who he thinks his constituency is – big oil – and not
his constituents who are paying daily for his mistakes.
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