Bush Calls For More Refineries

On Tuesday, October 4, Bush stated at a press conference in the Rose Garden that more refineries should be built to alleviate the recent increases in oil prices. Bush says that "It ought to be clear to everybody that this country needs to build more refining capacity to be able to deal with the issues of tight supply." I agree with Bush's statement 100%, our supply in this country is on a tight rope, and it wasn't truly realized by the American public until that supply was threatened by Hurricane Katrina and Hurrican Rita.

The article states that no refineries have been built since the 1970s. Why is this? My opinion is that no incentives are given for companies to continue to build refineries. Even environmental regulations have been a major detriment to building new refineries. In order to increase current refinery capacity and build new refineries, a bill needs to be signed that will give companies incentive to build them. What kind of incentives would these be? Or will the government force companies to build new refineries? Even if a bill would be past to alleviate the problem, it would not immediately effect gas prices. It will take many years to build these refineries.