Gas prices and refineries.

I heard on NPR today that gas prices are up and going up almost exclusively because refineries have not sufficient processing capacity. The reason why they don't have sufficient capacity is that many of them are off-line for maintenance. Am I the only one to think there is a parallel with the ENRON days when critical energy distribution stations would go off-line for maintenance so that states would have to get the energy from much more expensive places? Of course, now we know that those off-line times were all planned and manipulated for the only purpose of increasing profits.

That should artificially pump up gas prices beyond what the market would alone dictate. Unfortunately, there are a very small number of companies that control the majority of the oil refining capacity in the United States.

No new refineries built in 30 years. (Reasons: NIMBY and reticence to actually meet market demand and lower prices.)

Spring changeover in refineries from "winter mix" to "summer mix" ... home heating oil demand plummets. Companies use changeover time for maintenance ... and seem to have 'accidents' at the same time.

there is no will to build them, too much $$$ in chaos. Maybe if Janet offered a BJ?

I've just stopped driving, only go through a tank every 3 - 4 weeks now.

My husband works exclusively at refinery shutdowns. The shutdowns last 3 months, every 18 to 24 months. The equipment is old and they will eventually replacing everything. The maintenance shutdowns are mandated by the EPA, not the company.

There's been an expansion planned for one of the biggest refineries here for over 3 years. The EPA continues to push back the start date because they don't have the employees to supervise the expansion! They're too busy supervising maintenance.

Maintenance must be done or it will look like Alaska's decrepit pipeline. Our refineries here are built INSIDE the city, with hundreds of thousands of people living around them.

Keeping low capacity at the refineries was the oil companies stratagy for huge profits.

C'mon someone must have saved that. I'd like to email it around a second time.

. . . is 320,500,000 per day (2005). A small 10 cent price increase means $32 MILLION ADDITIONAL profit per day. A dollar increase means $320,500,000 more revenue per day, or over 2 billion dollars more per week additional revenue. Think there isn't a big financial motive just in seeing how much they can get away with?