When looking for easy answers to difficult questions, turn on CNN.
This morning, it featured a periodic update on rising gas prices called "Who’s to blame?"
The price of oil per barrel is about the same as this time last year. Gas taxes haven’t risen. Usage is about the same. Wars haven’t stopped Saudi oil shipments.
But refinery capacity is down. So we can blame it on the refineries.
Some refineries are being repaired and upgraded. The refineries of the Gulf Coast have never returned to full capacity as crews are constantly patching them, up so they can continue to plug along. No new refineries have been built in 30 years because, say the oil companies, nobody wants a refinery in their backyard.
But what about the refineries we already have? Who’s responsible for their sorry state? Oil companies. If their refineries were state of the art and pumping out refined fuel at a rapid pace, gas prices would fall. Profits would sink for oil company CEOs and they would have to buy one yacht a year instead of several. They would have less money to lobby Congress.
So it’s the oil companies, you see, backed by a U.S. administration of oil barons: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. And their pals in Congress like Wyoming Rep. Barbara Cubin.
We can drive less, I know, but unless we all stopped commuting tomorrow, it would have little effect. I use ethanol in my motorized beast, and my wife has a Saturn sedan that gets great mileage. We could do better, but we’ve made adjustments. I commute by bike to work almost every day during the summer.
We even have a refinery in our town. According to the local paper, Frontier Refining is getting an upgrade with new and better equipment. Refineries don’t look nice and they smell, but the prevailing westerlies carry the smell to the east. We smell gas only when the winds come from the south, a rare event in southeastern Wyoming. I don't mind it. But I don't smell the refinery every day as do the people who live around it.
When I was traveling to Jackson last week via I-80, I noticed construction on the east end of the sprawling Sinclair Refinery. It appeared that it was business as usual at the rest of the complex. Was this an upgrade or an addition? Don’t know, but I’ll see if I can find out. The town of Sinclair has a population of maybe 300, many of whom work at the refinery. It has a fine little Mexican restaurant and, as I’m eating my enchiladas, I can smell the refinery which smells like money to everyone else in town.
Cheyenne and Sinclair are doing their part. I wonder if we should locate refineries to the chi-chi Rocky Mountain resorts where oil company execs come to play. What about Jackson? Vail? Sun Valley? I’m sure the average CEO won’t mind if we park a refinery next to their sprawling mansion in the pines. The mansion was paid for with inflated gas prices so its only right that the refinery is there too. The exec could keep an eye on all his investments, ill-gotten-gains and refinery too. I’m sure the refinery will be pleasing to the eye, as nobody wants a steel monstrosity next door. Might affect resale prices. Besides, most of these execs live in planned communities with covenants. The refinery would probably have to be built by a high-priced architect from The Coast, incorporating the latest in esthetics and green technology (O.K., forget the green stuff). I suppose they’d also have to do something about the smell. As you can see, this will turn out to be quite a pricey project. But what does the oil company CEO care? He’ll just pass those prices on to us and use the profits to build a third house in some other resort – or maybe move to Dubai along with his company.
In the end, it’s probably best to retrofit refineries in Cheyenne and Sinclair, Beaumont and New Orleans, than to branch out to Jackson and Vail. So what’s stopping the oil companies from doing so?
You tell me.
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