White House eyes restarting idle refineries

Transport Topics recently reported on the Biden administration reaching out to the oil industry to ask questions about restarting shuttered refineries, as the White House scrambles to prepare and address the record high gas and diesel prices. With the midterm elections coming up, this is an unsettling issue and is “setting off political alarm bells”.

According to Transit Topics, “Members of the National Economic Council and other officials have inquired within the industry about factors that led some refining operations to be curtailed and if plans are underway to restart capacity”. The White House took time to make any comments. The average price per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $4.60 as of last week. In some places, like California, prices are as high as $6.00 per gallon.

The White House has taken multiple steps to address the issue, like oil bills and an “energy markets team” that has been set in place to monitor energy supply and price data for the past few months. This will hopefully give us more options to regulate gasoline prices across the country.