Rita: Bush to press Congress for new refining capacity

26 September 2005 19:01  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--President George W Bush said on Monday that he will work with Congress to encourage the addition of more domestic US refining capacity, saying that hurricanes Katrina and Rita “have shown how fragile the balance is between supply and demand in America.”

 

“These storms show that we need additional capacity,” Bush told a press conference here this morning.  “We need additional refining capacity to meet the needs of the American people.”

 

Bush and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman spoke with reporters after they received a Department of Energy (DoE) briefing on the after effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

 

“It is clear,” Bush said, “that we need more refining capacity.  And I look forward to working with Congress, as we analyze the energy situation, to expedite the ability of our refiners to expand and/or build new refineries.”

 

“I’ve talked with US refiners,” Bush said, “who have said: ‘We’d like to expand on site, but the amount of paperwork necessary to do so is staggering.’”

 

The president indicated he will work with Congress to review New Source Review (NSR) regulations.  “The issue of new source review, for example,” Bush said, “is one that we’ve reviewed and said that, for the sake of expeditious expansion, the wise and careful expansion of refining capacity, we ought to look at those rules and regulations.”

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) NSR regulations require that construction of new plants or the expansion of existing production facilities include installation of the latest emissions control technology.

 

“If you take a good look at what it means to build a refinery or expand a refinery,” Bush said, “you’ll find there’s a lot of regulations and paperwork that are required, thereby delaying the capacity to come on to the market and discouraging people from building refineries.  That’s why we haven’t had one since 1970-something.”

 

“The first thing we need to look at,” Bush said, “is how to encourage people to do just that” - expand existing refining capacity or build new capacity - “without getting all kinds of time being taken up through bureaucratic hurdles.”

 

He said his administration will consider a reported offer by Kuwait’s oil minister to build a new refinery in the US.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly