President Biden on Wednesday warned the CEOs of seven oil companies that he is considering using emergency authorities of the federal government to increase U.S. refinery capacity and output.
The letter was sent to the heads of ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP America, Shell USA, Phillips 66, Marathon and Valero.
“The lack of refining capacity — and resulting unprecedented refinery profit margins — are blunting the impact of the historic actions my Administration has taken to address Vladimir Putin’s Price Hike and are driving up costs for consumers.”
The president also called on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to call an emergency meeting with the executives, and to provide “an explanation of any reduction in your refining capacity since 2020 and any concrete ideas that would address the immediate inventory, price, and refining capacity issues in the coming months — including transportation measures to get refined product to market.”
“The President is calling both upon production of oil to increase in the United States and around the world and he’s calling upon refinery capacity to increase, and he’s calling them to a meeting to say, ‘What can we do to help make that happen?'” Granholm said.