Around 9/2/2005 3:20 AM, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:

On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:14:19 -0700, Garth Almgren
wrote:

Around 9/1/2005 7:07 AM, OlBlueEyes wrote:

The "oil market" is not a "market" at all. Insane extremists have
prevented the construction of a single refinery over the past 20 years;

By "insane extremists," I assume you mean the oil industry execs?

Not only are they preventing new refineries from being built, but, even
worse, that particular group of insane extremists are actively shutting
refineries down to cut costs and increase their already mind-boggling
profits.


That's not true at all.

Is so!

In all seriousness, there's only the tiniest dab of hyperbole in what I
said. Otherwise, it's almost precisely spot on.


CITGO and BP wanted to build a refinery up
river in Connecticut about six years ago - they got beat to death by
environmentalists and the Speaker of the House and President of the
Senate - all Democrats I might add - and just said screw it.

About ten years ago, a company wanted to take over the old torpedo
factory in Gould Island in Narragansett Bay for a refinery - nope, no
can do.


A couple of _very_ rare exceptions.

If I were into conspiracy theories (and I'm not), I'd have to guess that
those examples were half-hearted gestures, made only so that the oil
companies could say "Look how those nasty Earth-lovers and Democrats are
keeping us from making more gasoline!!"


It's not like they haven't been trying.

Well, they sure haven't been trying very hard, considering the closure
rate of perfectly functional and/or upgradeable refineries.

If they *really* wanted a new refinery, it would get built. They've got
the money and the political influence to make it happen quicker than you
can possibly imagine -- IF they wanted to.


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows