I read an article in the Atlanta airport one time that dealt with oil refineries. It talked about the billions of dollars of tax payer money that oil companies have collected to maintain and expand refineries and how they have redirected almost all of it into other activities while continuing to allow large sections of current refineries to sit idle and decay.
Since you read one article, you are now expert? Gee, I thought it took more work.
I can't speak to Kenova or the issues surrounding that expansion. Can you speak to the Arizona refinery? Was your time near Kenova when oil was $12/barrel and oilcompanies were losing money? Or under current conditions?
Eminent domain is unlikely to be used to build refineries. Primary regulation for that is going to come out of local, state and Fed EPA's, which don't have ED authority. Eminent domain is useful to local governments within city limits to hand over properties to developers of retail or residential projects. Ever hear of it being used to pave the way for any kind of industrial project such as a refinery? I have not but it doesn't mean it hasn't happened.
And what was the mechanism that "gave" taxpayer money to oil companies? IF you are talking about "subsidies" such as depletion allowances or depreciation, those are tax provisions just like the R+D credit which benefits Microsoft. Is therefore Microsoft being "subsidized" by taxpayers?
I agree partly that additional refinery capacity is not so useful without additional supplies, and that is where the drilling can reduce the price of crude going to refineries. Depending on where the well is, flowing wells can be on-line in less than a year. The 10 year mantra was what was touted 10 years ago to justify doing nothing. Here it comes again. It is not accurate.
Drilling offshore usually meets, in my empirical sample, the example of the Santa Barabara Channel blowout of 1969. A big mess, to be sure. All traces long gone, more sea life than before. And the experience of Katrina, with multiple platforms destroyed and no spills, the improvement in technology to prevent blowouts, of course none of that appears to have happened, or the experts would know about it (they don't, or won't).
"Settled science" says we can't do anything. That is a crock as science continues to move ahead, and even Algore is hiding with all the new data about MMGW being a hoax.
When you stop learning you start dieing.