Governor Gavin Newsom continues to blame fuel refiners for California’s highest-in-the-nation fuel prices. He couldn't be more wrong. The problem and solution to much of California’s fuel price challenge can be found in Sacramento policy. Take a look to better understand the role of policy in regional price differences, why it’s inaccurate to equate “margins” or “refinery cracks” with “profits,” and why windfall profit taxes are a known policy failure.
Refinery utilization, measures how much crude oil refineries are processing or “running” as a percentage of their maximum capacity. It tells us roughly how much of our refining muscle is being put to work manufacturing fuel. American refineries are running full-out, at about 95% of total capacity, contributing more fuel—gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc.—to the global market than any other country. In fact, U.S. refineries process more crude oil every day than the United States produces, and we make more finished fuels than the United States consumes.
The United States has the most complex and efficient refining industry in the world, but we also have less refining capacity than we used to. Where the issue of refining capacity is concerned, it’s important to understand what refining capacity is, why we’ve lost capacity in the United States and how policies can advance the competitiveness of our refineries in the global market.
In a series of comments submitted recently to EPA, leading labor groups made the case to President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan for reductions to the proposed 2022 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume mandate. An unachievable and costly RFS is a threat to good union jobs.
EPA’s blanket denial of relief for small refineries is a political decision that contradicts Congress’s design for the RFS. We are deeply disappointed in this and in the precedent it sets for small refineries experiencing hardship and the communities and regions that rely on these facilities for energy security.
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers CEO Chet Thompson today issued the following statement on the Biden administration’s announcement that it plans to invoke emergency waiver authority under the Clean Air Act to allow for the incremental sale of E15 fuel this summer.
EPA's 2022 RFS standard is bewildering and contrary to the Administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers. Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers.
AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson and API President and CEO Mike Sommers sent a letter to President Biden responding to recent letters the Administration sent to major U.S. fuel refiners suggesting that these companies, their workforces and facilities throughout the country aren’t doing their part to bring fuel to the market and lower energy costs for consumers.
WASHINGTON — American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) released the following joint statement on U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's meeting...
AFPM's Geoff Moody issued the following statement responding to the EPA's 2023-2025 proposal for RFS blending obligations: “Congress provided EPA the ability to modernize the RFS and set it on a more sustainable course for all stakeholders. Sadly, EPA’s proposal is a missed opportunity..."
