[cantdrv55]

I was watching an interview on Bloomberg TV this morning of the CEO of Valero Energy, is the darling of the market having posted the biggest gains this year. He said that the industry spend so much money meeting the environmental regulations that there aren't funds left for building new refineries. He also said that Valero was lucky in that only the refinery in Louisiana was damaged by the hurricanes, most survived unscathed. He said that if there were tax benefits to building new refineries, Valero and the rest of the industry would shift their focus and fund those projects but, as of right now, the most profitable projects are those "upstream" (heck if I know what he meant by that but I'm assuming gouging us at the pumps).

Anyway, I always thought that it's our dependence on foreign oil that's causing the high pump prices. By the interview, I'm gathering that a shortage of crude is not the issue at all now or ever. Am I wrong about this? Do we have an abundance of crude but it's the refineries that are unable to meet demands?

Also, if Valero had no funds left after meeting enviro regs to fund new refinery projects, how could they post the biggest gains ever?

I'm sure this is elementary to you folks who keep track of this stuff, but help out a fella who wants to be more informed, will ya?