Transportation and Infrastructure

Russian crude oil accounts for just three percent of U.S. crude oil imports and about one percent of total crude oil processed by U.S. refineries. Even still, Russian crude oil imports are important to refineries on the West Coast and Gulf Coast for some distinct reasons. Read more on this topic from AFPM’s industry analysts in their recent assessment: “U.S. Imports of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products from Russia.”

Congress, regulators, and industry should collaborate to enhance energy product reliability programs and regulations at existing agencies, rather than complicating matters through the creation of a new, duplicative reliability regulator.

If the Biden Administration is serious about helping consumers, it needs to adopt policies that promote U.S. energy production and refining. A good place to start would be right-sizing RFS mandates.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – "Federal policy is discouraging supply by shutting down pipelines, putting future production off limits, talking down the future of the petroleum business, and imposing expensive requirements on refineries, chief among them a burdensome Renewable Fuel Standard. The Administration is blaming others when it ought to take a sober look at its own energy policy."

COVID-19 upended energy markets. Demand disappeared and producers scaled back. Now that economies are reopening, and the demand for goods and services is rebounding, the demand for energy all along the supply chain is increasing, driving up not only the cost of the feedstocks and fuels refineries and petrochemical manufacturers use, but also the cost of the energy used at every step of the supply chain.

Refineries are not the story when it comes to retail gasoline prices. Raw materials (in this case crude oil) account for the biggest share of the final price consumers pay.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday the Federal Railroad Administration published its Rail Integrity and Track Safety Standards final rule in the Federal Register.

The ultimate goal of safety policy is to reduce or even virtually eliminate risk, and policymakers and regulated industries continually face difficult decisions in working toward this objective.

Last month Rob Benedict, senior director, petrochemicals, transportation and infrastructure at AFPM, spoke with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono regarding a host of current issues facing AFPM members and freight rail shippers across the United States.