Chris you are dead on & its just another example of the liberal anti-oil twisting the truth to fit the story they want.
I deleted one previous links because what looked like Valero news item was Environmental blog rant about just what your talking about.
What they were doing is taking the fact that Valero intent to increase take of Canadian Oil Sands crude to fill in holes left by Venezuelan and Mexico underproduction of heavy crudes and then export some of the products (not crude as they try to say) in order to capture the higher value rest world has on diesel. The half-lie here is that they are claiming exporting US fuel products is ~same as exporting CA crude. Not the same & whole US has been taking advantage (until EPA/Environmental nuts started killing off Refinery capacity).
The folks pitching those lie’s are ignorant of lot refining aspects but 2 in particular – 1) they have killed off so many small refineries thru regulations that we have basically only 6 states doing 75% US refinery gasoline & diesel production – 4 of those are in Gulf Coast so naturally if CA’s want move big volumes crude has go there. and 2) This crude WILL BE PRODUCED – if it doesnt come to US it will go CA West Coast & then to China/Asia Pacific and that will be one time choice either way when the P/L is layed the option reverse decision is DOA. Which is what they are hoping – as NIMBY idiots they dont really care about environment just dont want it in thier back door – otherwise they would be going after China as worlds leading polluter now & largest growing consumer of crude.
Another point liberal media & these guys dont understand is that once the US stops importing gasoline (were are essentially balanced with depressed job market & higher add of ETHANOL) then the rest of world doesnt have place to dump its extra gasoline exports and if that is case they have run the refineries on “Diesel Economy” which is limited by how much gasoline their domestic and chemical market can use and pay for at $100/Bbl crude cost. The Global Refining sector uses more diesel than gasoline but they cannot run at higher utilization rates of 85-93% without place export gasoline & so have drop back to 70-75% utilization numbers – which is what Russia/Africa/Asia lot regions were operating at before the US had start importing because regulations eleminated economic ways make gasoline (no lead, limited Butane, limited Light St Run gasoline, limited alky, no MTBE, limit Reformate ect ect).
Good news is that both East Coast and West Coast liberal idiots that spawned most this crisis will be in long pump lines or walking when next round Gulf Hurricanes hit. But they are hoping if they kill off the fossil fuel alternatives and prices get high enough their beloved Electric & LNG cars will take over. The technology isnt there & wont be rushed – even if it did, no one US will be able afford it with regulations killing off MFG jobs faster than companies can grow them.
Please start logging into newspapers when you see these things – or go to your local meeting where they buss these Serria guys in to make it look like everyone in state is against oil sector.
Regards