Answer: Why Gas Prices are High

I'm sure you've wondered why you're paying so much for gas. Well, if you don't know, go see the environmental wackos.

From IBD Editorials (HT to NCPA):

Our refineries are doing more than ever, but their numbers are dwindling and no new ones are being built. The reason is not greed, but cost and regulations. From 1994 to 2003, the refining industry spent $47.4 billion, not to build new refineries, but to bring existing ones into compliance with ever new and stringent environmental rules. That's where those allegedly excessive profits go.

In 2006, the blending of ethanol into gasoline reached a new high of more than five billion gallons and production if new clean-burning ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel topped a record 2.6 million barrels a day at the end of last year.

The fact is that U.S. refining capacity has been growing at about 1% a year for the past decade — the equivalent of adding a mid-size refinery every year. Since 1996, U.S. refiners have expanded capacity by more than 2 million barrels a day This is a remarkable achievement in the face of environmental mandates setting new ethanol usage and low-sulfur requirements.

But the last major refinery built in the U.S. was in Garyville, La., in 1976 and the ones we have are getting older, no matter how well they're maintained. Fifty out of 194 refineries were shut down from 1990 to 2004. There is no slack in the system. Like the cars they fuel, periodic maintenance us required.

I think it was Larry Burkett who said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Only rich nations can afford to strangle themselves."

And thanks to liberals and their anti-business pet causes, we're doing a pretty good job of spreading the misery. Happy now?