Regis Philbin
Jun 18th, 2007, 05:39 PM
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=3290259&page=1&Business=true
Going Green's No Good for Gas Prices
Push for Environmentally Friendly Fuel Makes Oil Companies Fearful to Expand
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
June 18, 2007
Next time you fill up at the pump, think about this: The move toward more environmentally friendly fuels might be pushing up the cost of gasoline.
The big driver behind the current gas price climb is a lack of capacity at the nation's oil refineries.
Building new refineries -- or even expanding existing ones -- is an expensive and time-consuming process. And now it appears that oil companies are also reluctant to do so because of a national push away from their products to biofuels such as ethanol.
Bill Holbrook, communications director for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, told ABC News that there are conflicting signals about what path the nation will take coming from both President Bush and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The president is calling for a 20percent reduction on gasoline use while some lawmakers are pushing for more biofuels.
If you process gasoline, those in the industry say that none of those developments are necessarily going to make you want to process more.
"If you're a manufacturer in any industry you're going to consider what the implications are going to be 10 years down the road," Holbrook said. "Are you going to make an investment or reinvestment now to expand production …: to continue making a product that some are trying to limit the distribution of."
Going Green's No Good for Gas Prices
Push for Environmentally Friendly Fuel Makes Oil Companies Fearful to Expand
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
June 18, 2007
Next time you fill up at the pump, think about this: The move toward more environmentally friendly fuels might be pushing up the cost of gasoline.
The big driver behind the current gas price climb is a lack of capacity at the nation's oil refineries.
Building new refineries -- or even expanding existing ones -- is an expensive and time-consuming process. And now it appears that oil companies are also reluctant to do so because of a national push away from their products to biofuels such as ethanol.
Bill Holbrook, communications director for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, told ABC News that there are conflicting signals about what path the nation will take coming from both President Bush and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The president is calling for a 20percent reduction on gasoline use while some lawmakers are pushing for more biofuels.
If you process gasoline, those in the industry say that none of those developments are necessarily going to make you want to process more.
"If you're a manufacturer in any industry you're going to consider what the implications are going to be 10 years down the road," Holbrook said. "Are you going to make an investment or reinvestment now to expand production …: to continue making a product that some are trying to limit the distribution of."