Oil and Gas News - Gas pains - The Grand Rapids Press

AP Photo Michigan’s public schools would be spared cuts in state aid and tax increases would be avoided this fiscal year under a tentative deal worked out Friday in Lansing. As targets for displaced anger, they are unsuspecting proxies for profit-reaping petro giants, OPEC oil barons, wacky Venezuelan strongmen and free-floating economic anxiety. A March fire at the BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana — the largest in the Midwest — cut that facility’s 410,000 barrel-per-day capacity in half. Environmental regulations that require refineries to produce different grades for different regions during different times of year only exacerbate the capacity problem. Hurricane Katrina, in one vicious slam, knocked out a quarter of the nation’s refinery capacity because so much is concentrated on the exposed Gulf Coast. The Michigan Public Service Commission’s energy appraisal projected a 1 percent increase in gas consumption in Michigan this year. read more

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