{"id":25715,"date":"2007-05-24T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:30:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T05:30:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:30:07","slug":"the_truth_about_gas_prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/05\/24\/the_truth_about_gas_prices\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Gas Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: All right, the gasoline price. Today on CNN\u2019s American Morning, the cohost John Roberts was interviewing Lynn Westfall, who is the chief economist at the Tesoro Corporation. Roberts says, ‘As we try to get to the bottom of why gasoline prices are so high in this country, critics are pointing fingers at the refining industry,\u2019 which is this guy\u2019s industry, ‘saying that you people are the ones responsible because the price of a barrel of oil isn\u2019t as high as it was a couple years ago when gasoline prices were lower. Are you refinery people responsible?\u2019<\/p>\n

WESTFALL: In a way we\u2019re responsible, in the way that it\u2019s a global market for gasoline. We\u2019re now importing about 13% of our gasoline needs in the United States, and those imports have to be supplied by foreign refineries who are very inefficient at making US spec gasoline. So we have to bid up the price of gasoline on the world scale to give the incentive to these very inefficient refineries to make something that they weren\u2019t built to make. We also have to pay the price to ship the product over here. So, yes, when US refineries are running at absolutely a hundred percent capacity, and demand keeps growing, we do have to go overseas to very inefficient refineries to fill our supply-demand gap.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Did you hear that, ladies and gentlemen? I\u2019m bouncing off the call we had yesterday from the guy who said the oil companies own the product from the time it leaves the ground \u2019til the time it goes into your gas tank. How many of you knew that we had to import gasoline, not oil — everybody knows that — how many of you knew we had to import gasoline? We have to import 13% of our gasoline. And guess what? The places we\u2019re importing it, from these refineries aren\u2019t tooled to make all these different specs or these different grades of gasoline. Chicago needs it\u2019s own, LA, California needs their own, all because of the environmentalist wackos. So it\u2019s going to cost more to get what we need, then we gotta pay to get it shipped over here, and this guy from the refining industry, ‘Yeah, it\u2019s our fault if you want to say so. We\u2019re not allowed to build any more refineries. We gotta buy gasoline from outside the country.\u2019 Next question from John Roberts was, ‘Well, we keep hearing from analysts that refineries in the US are not able to keep up with demand. Has your industry got a problem here domestically?\u2019<\/p>\n

WESTFALL: No, that\u2019s very correct. Over the last nine months gasoline demand has gone up at the rate of two and a half new refineries a year, and we can\u2019t build that kind of capacity. The industry has never been able to build that kind of capacity. So every year, if demand goes up that much — certainly we can do some things at existing refineries, and I think every refinery company is doing something at existing refineries to increase their capacity. But it\u2019s being far outpaced by demand growth. So in fact we\u2019re getting more and more dependent on imports.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Of gasoline, not oil. That\u2019s already established. Imports of gasoline. Now, why can\u2019t we build any more refineries? Well, go ask the left. Go ask the environmentalist wackos. Do you realize what the permit process would be if you started a day trying to get permission? Do you realize the groups that would stop you and oppose you and demand this? You couldn\u2019t harm one sand flea in the construction process. You couldn\u2019t displace a white tail rat. You couldn\u2019t do anything building the refinery. From the time you start planning it, you go through the permit process, you pay the grease that you gotta go through to get through all this. Ten years, to build a refinery. One more sound bite from Mr. Lynn Westfall here from the Tesoro Corporation. John Roberts says, ‘So what\u2019s the problem with expanding refinery capacity? We keep hearing that there hasn\u2019t been a new refinery built in this country since the seventies. We do hear about some expansion. What are the disincentives to doing it?\u2019<\/p>\n

WESTFALL: Well, when you\u2019re looking at building a new refinery, it\u2019s a six- to seven-year proposition before you can get it built. So for six to seven years you\u2019re spending billions of dollars and getting no income. After that, it would take even today\u2019s margins for ten to 15 years to pay out that kind of a massive expenditure. So to build a new refinery you\u2019re basically asking someone to take a 20-year risk.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You\u2019re asking them to take a 20-year risk. He\u2019s not going to talk about the hassles he\u2019s going to run into with the environmentalists. He\u2019s not going to give himself any problems doing that. He left that out. But that\u2019s part of this. It\u2019s going to be ten years, time you start winding — and plus, wherever you build it, you gotta deal with the local government there. You gotta go to that town council or whatever they are, the city counsel men, you gotta deal with those people the way you deal with the waste management people. We\u2019re behind the eight ball here. We haven\u2019t done it. And who\u2019s standing in the way of this, folks? We\u2019re a growing economy, progress. Who\u2019s standing in the way of this? Same people standing in the way of drilling for more oil. Democrats and the American left. So a 20-year investment to make any money if we start today building a new refinery? Looks and sounds like we\u2019re going to be buying more gasoline from overseas. We\u2019re going to be buying gasoline refined by others. That\u2019s going to continue to put pressure on the price. I found it interesting. The refinery guys taking all the heat here. He works for the trade group that represents refineries, and he\u2019s taking all the heat, he\u2019s taking all the heat off of Big Oil and all the oil companies combined, which is interesting. Will the American people figure this out? Hear it, learn it, or will they rely on the old taboo and the old clich&eacute;s?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: All right, the gasoline price. Today on CNN\u2019s American Morning, the cohost John Roberts was interviewing Lynn Westfall, who is the chief economist at the Tesoro Corporation. Roberts says, ‘As we try to get to the bottom of why gasoline prices are so high in this country, critics are pointing fingers at the refining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth About Gas Prices - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/05\/24\/the_truth_about_gas_prices\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Truth About Gas Prices - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: All right, the gasoline price. 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