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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (255990)	6/28/2008 2:04:55 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793718

Agree with you on the US Dollar. Kiplinger article from 2 years ago tells us: Gasoline Imports Set to Surge As imports go up, so will prices, courtesy of a court ruling overturning a Bush administration effort to expand U.S. refining capacity. By Jim Ostroff March 29, 2006 A recent federal appeals court case on a Bush administration air quality regulation quietly put the kibosh on plans to increase capacity of U.S. gasoline refineries. The result is likely to be about a 40% increase in U.S. imports of gasoline to about 5 million barrels a day by decade's end, ensuring continued high prices. The court decision will also likely force up costs of electric utilities. Any expansion needed to meet rising demand will require installation of expensive scrubbers that capture emission particles before they leave the smokestack. Gasoline refiners figured they got a green light to substantially expand production in 2003, when the Bush administration eased costly clean air rules that kick in when industrial plants make big additions to capacity. The Bush regulation would have let refineries modernize existing plants and expand capacity by nearly 20%, without requiring the installation of scrubbers. But a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals squashed expansion plans when it overturned the Bush regulation, saying the plain language of the Clean Air Act required a stricter approach. Advocates for the Bush regulation, including refiners, electric utilities and chemical makers, aren't ready to concede yet. But with several years' worth of court appeals certain, it's unlikely that refiners will proceed with plans to expand capacity by 1.3 million barrels a day, raising daily output to about 18.5 million barrels by decade's end. Although some small incremental U.S. production increases are still likely, the ruling virtually guarantees that imports of gasoline will rise significantly. Already about 17% of U.S. gasoline use, the imported share will probably climb to nearer 25%. That's likely to leave motorists fuming because it costs more for foreign refiners than their U.S. counterparts to make the variety of gasoline blends mandated by clean air standards and marketed only in this country. With natural gas costs continuing to soar, electric utilities have little choice but to turn to coal to expand generating capacity by either increasing output at existing plants or building new ones. Solar and wind power can help, but there's no way they can produce the 100,000 gigawatt-hours that need to be added annually to the 4 million gigawatt-hours of power that will be used in the U.S. this year. In addition, state laws require utilities to meet new power demand. The court ruling means that in both cases, expensive scrubbers will be required. Residential and business consumers could wind up paying dearly. "Scrubbers cost millions of dollars per plant, and that's a factor in the cost of money [borrowed for financing] that's needed to build new plants, which in turn affects ratepayers," says Steve Kiesner, director of national accounts at the Edison Electric Institute, an investor-owned electric utilities trade group. You can also expect that plans to expand production at a variety of other industrial plants, including integrated steel mills and manufacturers of volatile chemicals used to make plastics, paints and polishes, will be throttled back. For weekly updates on topics to improve your business decisionmaking, click here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page printed from: kiplinger.com All contents © 2008 The Kiplinger Washington Editors

To: Snowshoe who wrote (255990)	6/28/2008 2:08:14 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793718

Some interesting charts: Totals US Gasoline imported per year and quarter since 1982 to present tonto.eia.doe.gov Regular Gasoline Retail Prices (Cents per Gallon) This YTD vs Last YTD tonto.eia.doe.gov Gasoline Supply – The Role of Imports policyarchive.org HTML Version of above Role of Imports: 209.85.141.104