The US Government Accountability Office has agreed to examine relationships between refining capacity and gasoline prices and demand in response to requests from Connecticut’s congressional delegation and from US Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).
GAO received the two requests in mid-May and plans to merge them into a single inquiry to begin later this fall when qualified staff members are available, Gloria L. Jarmon, managing director for congressional relations, said in a Sept. 24 letter to Rep. Joseph Courtney (D-Conn.).
“Our nation’s refiners have operated with little oversight for decades and have suffered little recourse for repeated outages and downtime,” Courtney said in a joint announcement with other senators.
In their letter to GAO Comptroller General David A. Walker requesting an investigation, the delegation expressed skepticism that deferred maintenance led to reduced refinery utilization early in 2007 and suggested that “a calculated decrease in refining capacity could create an artificial shortage and drive up the cost to consumers.”
The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association immediately took issue with the delegation’s request. “Economists and national editorial pages have even warned Congress against passing so-called ‘price gouging’ legislation,” said NPRA Executive Vice-Pres. Charles T. Drevna.
“The American public could be far better served if its elected officials would work with businesses instead of against them to craft a sensible and realistic energy policy to protect consumers by keeping supplies stable,” he said.