It’s been two and a half years since Congress granted the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program long-term authorization.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts there may be over five million total drones flying the national airspace by 2020. On one hand, this is great news: drones present significant...
Hurricane Irma passed through Florida and into the Southeast over the weekend, and our thoughts and prayers are with the state and its residents as they begin to recover from this devastating storm.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – AFPM President and CEO Chet Thompson released the following statement on the rioting that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The official beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season usually begins on June 1, but the National Hurricane Center moved it up to May 15 with the formation of an early tropical storm in the Atlantic in the first half of the month.
We are surprised and disappointed by the President’s letter. Any suggestion that U.S. refiners are not doing our part to bring stability to the market is false. We would encourage the Administration to look inward to better understand the role their policies and hostile rhetoric have played in the current environment.
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.
Some policymakers are rumored to be considering a ban on crude oil and/or U.S. refined product exports. This would be a mistake. Ending U.S. crude oil or refined product exports won’t help U.S. consumers by lowering prices at pump. In fact, it could make things even worse. Let’s take a closer look at how a refined product export ban would affect gasoline and diesel supplies and, thus, prices in the United States and around the world.
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.
