On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 21:34:49 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

It's not crude price increases which are causing the increase in oil
industry profits lately. It's world demand for refined product (we have
to import actual gasoline now, too), and limited refinery capacity in
this country -- a supply-demand problem. The gov't could easily cause
refineries to be built with changes in environmental regulations, so the
cause of the "windfall profits" is essentially -- our gov't!

Well said.

We are dangerously low on refinery capacity, and current EPA regulations
make it essentially impossible to build any more in the U.S.

It's insane, but it's the law.

Nah. It's the Nimbys. Refineries lower property values. I like W's
suggestion to use old military bases for refineries. They're already
superfund sites.

Don
(Onizuka AFB's shutting according to this morning's news. Too small
for a refinery, though. I hope that eventually Moffet winds up as a
reliever and we can sneak in there when Palo Alto closes. We need to
keep Moffet operational for a few more years until the companies
around here start to need parking for their VLJs.).