US House passes bill to ease refinery construction

Washington (Platts)--7Jun2006

The US House of Representative Wednesday passed legislation intended to
facilitate permitting of new refinery construction. The bill was approved by a
vote of 238-179.
The bill required only a simple majority of votes. Identical House
legislation received 237 votes last month but failed because it needed a
two-thirds majority for procedural reasons.
There is no similar bill pending in the Senate, which would have to
approve the legislation for it to go to President Bush for his signature to
enact it into law. The Bush administration supports the House legislation.
Sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, Republican-Texas, the bill would require
the agencies responsible for refinery permitting establish and abide by "the
most expeditious coordinated schedule possible for completion of all federal
refinery authorizations." A federal coordinator would oversee state permitting
activities.
The bill also gives the US District Court in the district in which a
refinery is proposed exclusive jurisdiction over any civil action to
review the failure of any agency or official to act on a refinery
authorization in accordance with the established a schedule; and to set a new
schedule if such failure "would jeopardize timely completion" of the original
schedule.
It also directs the president to designate no less than three closed
military bases as potentially suitable for the construction of a refinery. At
least one such site would be designated as suitable for construction of a
biofuel refinery. The bill also repeals the refinery revitalization provision
in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which provides for the construction of
refineries in economically depressed areas.
Barton told the House that one reason a new refinery has not been built
in the US in 30 years is because of the "regulatory uncertainty caused by
bureaucratic delays in the current permitting process." He said his bill
doesn't weaken any environmental requirement.
Rep. Rick Boucher, Democrat-Virginia, protested that Democrats did not
have an opportunity to present a substitute bill. Boucher agreed that
there are not enough refineries in the nation to meet domestic demand for
petroleum products. However, the economic interests of refiners and not
environmental restraints "are the real reasons we don't have enough
refineries," he said.
The Barton bill "weakens state environmental protections and procedures
while doing nothing that assures that a refinery would be built," Boucher
said. The Democratic bill would have provided a refined products reserve and a
government run refinery to supply product for public consumption in an
emergency and for the military at other times.
--Gerald Karey, gerry_karey@platts.com

 

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