Refinery Permit Process Schedule Act

REFINERY PERMIT PROCESS SCHEDULE ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 03, 2006)

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Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, we all know why this bill was rushed to the floor today, and why it is being considered under a shortcut process that limits debate and prevents any consideration of even a single amendment.

It's because the Republican leadership thinks they need to make a show of doing something about the price of gasoline.

But just because they are feeling some political heat does not mean that we should pass this bill, which I think does not deserve to be approved.

The bill would require State and local governments to comply with a new Federal schedule for approving permits to site, construct, or expand a refinery. To do that, it would repeal part of the brand-new Energy Policy Act of 2005 that gave the States the ability to request authority to trigger a process that would coordinate Federal and State actions on a refinery.

In other words, it is a new Federal mandate--and it probably would not do anything to speed up construction of any refineries, for several reasons.

First, more Federal bureaucracy and red tape means more delays, because heavy-handed Federal requirements--including judicially-enforceable deadlines--will bring exactly the resistance and litigation that the provisions in the Energy Policy Act were intended to forestall.

And, second, it's economics that controls decisions about refinery capacity.

That's why, as the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Exxon thinks building a new refinery would be bad for its long-term business even as it expands the capacity of is existing refineries.

Just last November, in fact, Shell's CEO testified in a Senate hearing that ``[w]e are not aware of any environmental regulations that have prevented us from expanding refinery capacity or siting a new refinery'' and Conoco' s CEO echoed that, saying ``we are not aware of any projects that have been directly prevented as a result of any specific Federal or State regulation.''

But, when the Republican leadership gets scared, who cares about the facts or wants to bother with thinking things through?

So here we are, rushing to take up a bill that was just introduced, on which there have been no hearings and no opportunity for anyone who will be affected--including the State and local governments--to have a chance to comment.

That's a bad way to do business, and this is a bad bill. I cannot support it.

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