Educational Efforts
July 16th, 2012
As Tesoro employees may already know, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) is the new name of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA). AFPM has launched a new educational effort to spotlight the substantial benefits fuel manufacturers and marketers offer Americans. We strongly support AFPM’s initiative. It profiles the economic growth supported by our industry and your hard work. America needs better access to efficiently produced, increasingly clean fuels, and regulations that minimize, rather than exacerbate, consumer costs.
New polling data confirms that Americans want:
- Increased domestic production to moderate crude oil cost, which is the main driver for consumer costs at the pump. The next-highest component to the retail price of fuel is taxes. Refining and distribution are amongst the smallest part of these costs.
- The federal government should do more to boost production, and to ease off on the massive array of new and expanded regulations contemplated by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Despite volatile crude prices, and the threat of new regulations America is the world’s third-largest oil producer, with a 200+ year supply!
Our government should support development of these resources – not policies that are actually designed to increase the cost of bringing these fuels to market. Notwithstanding US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s efforts to somehow make gasoline cost $8 to $9 a gallon, this should not be a policy objective of the Federal government.
High-tech refinery jobs are increasingly recognized to be high-tech manufacturing jobs – which are vital to local, state and national economies. The refined products you produce are integral to remedying America’s trade imbalance!
When people understand how fuels manufacturers deliver products that are vital to America’s economy, we share AFPM’s belief that they will also support our public policy positions.
As Tesoro CEO Gregg Goff notes, “You are on the front line of this educational effort, and we want to provide you with the information that you need to tell our story. We know that everyone is an expert in his or her own field, and we now want to help put that expertise into the context of the entire industry.” We are the best ambassadors to the communities in which our industry is privileged to serve and it is time to proudly tell our story to our friends, our neighbors, and all of our customers. www.acttesoro.com coupled with the new links provided therein should give you additional tools to carry this message forward.
LINKS
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers - www.afpm.org
Products and Power initiatives to highlight the industry’s link to economic growth: www.productsandpower.org
Consumer Energy Alliance information on Low Carbon Fuel Standards: www.secureourfuels.org
Oil sands facts: www.oilsandsfactcheck.org
Institute for Energy Research: www.instituteforenergyresearch.org