Letter from the US: Oil refining gets a do-over
It is an unusual story of out with the new and in with the old, as America First Refining shows the US going back to trusted energy security developments
After nearly 50 years without a major new refinery, the US had planned a ‘next-generation’ refinery in Cushing, Oklahoma, kitted out with hydrogen bells and whistles and a net-zero carbon goal. That was three years ago. The project is now looking moribund and is set to be usurped by a new planned refinery in Brownsville, Texas. The America First Refining (AFR) facility, announced by President Donald Trump and backed by India’s Reliance Industries, is part of a plan to expand domestic energy production amounting to $300b in value. This figure includes the long-term trade or economic impacts, rather than being purely the construction costs. Texan regulators issued air permits for an earlier ve
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