California gas prices

[joyridin']

Originally Posted by rms427

The exported petroleum was finished products like gasoline. We were still importing about half the oil we use. The gasoline exported allowed the refineries to run at efficient rates. If you cut the export of gasoline we would have imported less oil but would have run the refineries at less than optimum rates which would increase the production costs and probably result in more refineries shutting down.

That cannot be true. Read the post right above you. The claim is that no new refineries are allowed to be built. That is the claim all the right-wingers have been whining about for years. Having excess capacity should have reduced the price of gas...unless certain corporations are rigging the system to keep prices high at certain times.

There were congressional hearings on this topic in 1995. Numerous oil executives stated that they do not want to build refineries. EPA regulations were irrelevant. They can keep prices high with limited capacity.