The Line 5 pipeline plays a critical role in ensuring the United States and Canada continue to have access to affordable fuels, propane and other refined products. Union, political and business leaders on both sides of the border are emphasizing the critical role of the Line 5 pipeline and calling for it to remain open until its replacement can be completed:
This week, AFPM joined API and industry associations representing fuel retailers, gasoline marketers, convenience stores and tank truck carriers to field questions from the media about the ongoing fuel distribution challenges resulting from the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.
The United States is the now largest producer of crude oil and has the largest, most complex and most efficient refining industry in the world. Yet two of our most important oil trading partners are those that share our borders: Canada and Mexico.
U.S. petrochemical manufacturers are at the forefront of research and development into cutting-edge solutions to give new life to used plastic products. Leveraging their in-depth understanding of plastics’ molecular composition and the manufacturing process itself, AFPM members are investing in recycling technology, infrastructure and partnerships that will reduce mismanaged plastic waste by applying unlocking its value as a feedstock.
Refineries are not the story when it comes to retail gasoline prices. Raw materials (in this case crude oil) account for the biggest share of the final price consumers pay.
Right now, members of Congress are debating a series of taxes as part of the multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation package that could make the crude oil that runs through U.S. refineries more expensive.
COVID-19 upended energy markets. Demand disappeared and producers scaled back. Now that economies are reopening, and the demand for goods and services is rebounding, the demand for energy all along the supply chain is increasing, driving up not only the cost of the feedstocks and fuels refineries and petrochemical manufacturers use, but also the cost of the energy used at every step of the supply chain.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – "Federal policy is discouraging supply by shutting down pipelines, putting future production off limits, talking down the future of the petroleum business, and imposing expensive requirements on refineries, chief among them a burdensome Renewable Fuel Standard. The Administration is blaming others when it ought to take a sober look at its own energy policy."
Limiting California’s access to the exact types of crude oil its facilities need will only increase prices for the state’s consumers and travelers. Drivers are already dealing with gasoline prices in excess of $5 per gallon and the highest fuel taxes of the 50 states. Confining energy producers and consumers to a smaller pool of crude oil will make a very sensitive price environment that much worse.