The Biden administration is reaching out to the oil industry to inquire about restarting shuttered refineries, as the White House scrambles to address record high-gasoline prices that are setting off political alarm bells ahead of the midterm elections.
Members of the National Economic Council and other officials have inquired within the industry about factors that led some refining operations to be curtailed and if plans are underway to restart capacity, a person familiar with the matter said. [bold, links added]
The person, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record, added no direct ask to restart operations was made.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration’s efforts come as the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline stood at a record $4.60 Wednesday, just as the summer driving season is set to begin.
In California, prices are more than $6 a gallon, according to AAA.
But the White House, which has established an interagency “energy markets team” that has been monitoring energy supply and price data for the past several months, has few good options available to tame gasoline prices.
Pump prices have been skyrocketing amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that sent oil futures north of $100 a barrel.
More than one million barrels a day of the country’s oil refining capacity — or about 5% overall — has shut since the beginning of the pandemic.
Elsewhere in the world, capacity has shrunk by 2.13 million additional barrels a day, energy consultancy Turner, Mason & Co. estimates.
And with no plans to bring new US plants online, even though refiners are reaping record profits, the supply squeeze is only going to get worse.
“They are in a very difficult political situation,” said Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top US lobbying group. “They are looking for every option that is out there.”
Read more at Bloomberg
This is what Brandon, et al. wanted for their “incredible transition”. They just didn’t anticipate that people would get really pissed.
What is amazing is these folks don’t understand that the “incredible transition” is yet to BEGIN. When you have academics & ideologues that have no practical experience in energy markets, you get this type of foolishness. Problem is, fuel shortages & electric blackouts are no longer an “academic exercise” and they are beginning to manifest as REAL consequence. Until drama & theater in national policy making is replaced with energy imperatives, this “Clown Show” will only continue to unravel…
the first thing Biden the Bungler is to open up our own Demestic Fossil Fuels and the Keystone Pipelline and tell the Eco-Freaks to Go Pound Sand