As American manufacturers champion their contributions to economic competitiveness and product innovation today, the industry has yet another reason to celebrate – U.S. manufacturing employment is still on the rise.
One of the most significant challenges facing the fuel and petrochemical industries is finding the next generation of craft professionals ranging from electricians to millwrights to everything in between.
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.
For more than 100 years, the women and men of our industries have answered the call to serve when our country needed them. Through war, economic shocks, and natural disasters, refiners and petrochemical manufacturers have helped build new industries, grow our economy and fuel progress.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United Steelworkers—on behalf of their 1.2 million active and retired members, and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, in a joint letter, have petitioned President Biden to fill the four empty seats on the Chemical Safety & Hazards Investigations Board (CSB).
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."
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 U.S. refining industry is the most competitive in the world, which is a benefit to American households. Our complex facilities are uniquely suited to handle difficult-to-refine crude oil and other petroleum feedstocks that refineries elsewhere cannot process. This creates competitive advantage. At the same time, the United States is able to sell some of our higher-quality crude to countries that need it. This combination is powerful.
AFPM opposes the Inflation Reduction Act as written. We evaluated the bill against our core principles, specifically whether the legislation would support strong U.S. refining and petrochemical industries and whether it pursued emissions reductions in a market-based and cost-effective manner. Unfortunately, the IRA falls short of these goals.
Publicly owned companies, like many U.S. refineries, have a fiduciary responsibility (which is a legal obligation) to act in the best interest of their shareholders, and that extends to how companies spend their earnings. Often, earnings are spent on a combination of the following: direct dividends, stock buy back programs, paying down debt and capital investment projects.
