William Tauzin: “The last time America built a major refinery was in my district over a quarter of a century ago. Over a quarter of a…”

“The last time America built a major refinery was in my district over a quarter of a century ago. Over a quarter of a century ago was the last time we licensed and built a major refinery in America. That is pretty sad. The result has been that our refinery is at 93 percent capacity right now. They are making gasoline and fuel oil to heat our homes and jet fuel, as fast as they can make it; diesel fuel for our vehicles, as fast as they can make it. The result is we are importing more refined products now than ever. We are importing more refined jet fuel, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, everything else because we have stopped building refineries in America. That is pretty sad. On top of that, we have got a fuel blend requirement in our system that causes regions of the country to switch blends every now and then, winter grade, summer grade, different blends to meet air quality standards, the result of which if there is any breakdown in the system, we have got real problems. But building gasoline reserves and having the Federal Government intervene in those sales and marketing and circulating these sales every year is just going to make it worse, I promise.”