The truth about oil refineries....

"There hasn't been a new oil refinery built for 30 years!" True.....sort of.

A more accurate phrase would be, "There hasn't been a new oil refinery built for 30 years, but we've been expanding the old ones...."

Motiva Port Arthur Refinery to Become Largest Refinery in United States
21 Sep 2007

Final investment decision made on plans to expand refinery to 600,000 barrels per day

Motiva Enterprises LLC announced today that its owners authorized the company to proceed with a 325,000 barrel-per-day (b/d) capacity expansion at its Port Arthur, Texas refinery. The expansion will increase the refinery’s crude oil throughput capacity to 600,000 b/d, making it the largest refinery in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world.

"The expansion is designed to strengthen our nation’s supply of gasoline, diesel, aviation fuels and high quality base oils," said William B. Welte, Motiva President and Chief Executive Officer. "As the demand for a variety of fuels continues to grow, Motiva is committed to being the supplier of choice in the eastern and southern U.S. for conventional fuels as well as biofuels."

The 325,000 b/d expansion at Port Arthur is equivalent to building the first new refinery in the U.S. in more than 30 years. The new production capacity is expected to be online in 2010 and will increase Motiva’s supply of Shell-branded fuels to the company’s wholesale and direct supply markets.

Motiva’s expansion will lower most types of emissions from refinery operations on a per barrel basis by utilizing advanced technology in all new system installations and replacing existing systems. The expansion of the refinery will decrease emissions from present day levels for ozone precursors, specifically nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

Did you see that key phrase, "decrease emissions...?" Why won't the environmentalists let us build modern clean facilities? They must secretly hate the earth!

My fellow Louisianan at Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated (that could be me....) has this interesting observation:
"To anyone outside the petrochemical world that old “There hasn’t been a new oil refinery built in the US for thirty years” statement is almost laughable, because EVERY refinery I know of (and I know some major players here on the central Gulf Coast) has INCREASED capacity in the past thirty years. YOUR Federal and state governments have made it very difficult to start from scratch. They’re doing a great job of making it difficult to expand existing plants. But people who process oil are in the business to make money and they want to make it processing oil. So when you pay four bucks a gallon at the pumps, think of the refiner’s bills to pay legal and environmental staffs seven figures to fill out paperwork and jump through hoops to build, expand, or just keep on running."

Now, how much expansion do you think will happen when Hillary takes an extra $10 Billion away from those "eeeeevviiil" oil companies.

The best part:

The expansion is projected to generate more than 4,500 construction jobs and about 300 new full-time jobs upon completion. Motiva is working with the Texas Work Force Commission, Southeast Texas Workforce Development Board, Lamar State College – Port Arthur, represented work groups, vocational institutions and local school systems to recruit and train qualified members of the workforce to take full advantage of the job opportunities. Many local sub-contractors have already been hired for the project.

"And those are NOT minimum wage jobs, folks. Thousands of people have lived good lives and raised families, built lives and communities around these facilities. I know. I’m one."

Aren't the Democrats the party of the "working man?" How many jobs will be lost to government taxation under the Democrats energy plan?