Lucas Works to Lower Gas Price, Open Oklahoma Refineries

LUCAS WORKS TO LOWER GAS PRICES, OPEN OKLAHOMA REFINERIES
October 7, 2005

Congressman Votes to Increase Refinery Capacity, Investigate Price Gouging

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Third District Congressman Frank Lucas voted today for legislation to help provide gas price relief by increasing U.S. refinery capacity, investigating gasoline price-gouging, and encouraging oil conservation. Lucas is working to increase the refinery capacity in Oklahoma to help bring jobs to the state and reduce gas prices for Oklahoma motorists.

"Our state once had more than a dozen refineries providing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to Oklahoma, while also helping increase our domestic fuel supply," Lucas said. "But red tape and market downturns have shut down much of our production. We can get these refineries open again, and this legislation will help us get there."

Lucas said the proposed refinery in Cushing, as well as a shuttered refinery in Thomas, could help bring economic development to Oklahoma.

"We have the pipelines, the workforce, and the crude oil," Lucas said. "We just need to get the bureaucratic regulators out of the way so that we can get these facilities running again."

The bill, H.R. 3893, attempts to provide relief to the pressures acting upon U.S. oil markets. It will increase refinery capacity, promote geographic diversity in siting new refineries, improve delivery infrastructure, promote conservation, vigorously investigate charges of price-gouging, and expand the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

"Gasoline prices are too high, and we should have passed these provisions in the original energy bill," Lucas said. "Unfortunately, we couldn't get enough of my colleagues to agree to these provisions, but Hurricanes Katrina and Rita helped to show that our energy markets really are constrained."

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ok03_lucas/refinerybill.html