But we don't want pollution in our yard

Post #264,066 by tonytib 8/7/06 12:14:13 PM Reply	But we don't want pollution in our yard OK, say you have $4 billion and want to build a new refinery in the US....where are you going to build it? The answer: no where! Because, everyone will says: NIMBY. But the world needs another refinery, so it gets built in, say, China. Everybody wants the jobs, but nobody wants the headaches, and everybody can sue to stop it. So, there hasn't been a new refinery built in the US for something like 30 years. And the same is true of a lot of heavy industry - it's dirty, noisy, smelly, etc. But, yes, a lot could be done, such as streamling approval. And both parties are much better at symbolic stuff, than figuring out what would really help our economy, especially if it would offend some of their key donors (e.g. trial lawyers, teacher's unions, "environmentalists", ADM, etc). --Tony
Post #264,071 by drewk 8/7/06 12:32:53 PM Reply	That's where it gets tricky The easy rule is that you can't import anything made in a way that you couldn't legally make it here. What happens when it's technically legal, but due to local opposition you can't actually get the permit? We saw this when California was having the blackouts (ignoring for the moment that Enron basically engineered them) and the governor said Texas should allow the California power grid to be connected to theirs. So after decades of fighting power plan construction, after decades of criticizing Texas for their pollution problems, when they come up short of power they're perfectly willing to use that smoggy power. As far as I'm concerned, if you vote against a power plant, you should be first in line when rolling blackouts are needed. Vote against a textile mill, and you can't buy the cheap imported clothes. Scaling this idea up to a national level isn't exactly easy, but as a guiding principal I like it better than just slapping tariffs on whatever we're trying to protect today. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #264,073 by Another Scott 8/7/06 12:37:17 PM Reply	It's not just NIMBY. [link\|http://www.naseo.org/Committees/energyproduction/oil/Refining.htm\|Refining]: The U.S. has the largest and by far the most complex refining system in the world, reflecting its being the world\ufffds largest consumer of both oil and transportation fuels (see Graph). However, only Africa has a lower average capacity per refinery than the U.S. level of 94 thousand B/D. The pressing need to minimize unit costs and refining\ufffds pronounced economies of scale strongly suggest that the number of refineries in the U.S. will continue to decline, while those that remain will continue to expand their capacity through debottlenecking. IOW, if refining doesn't make the companies money, they won't invest in it. :-( Cheers, Scott.

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