Beyond the Barrel
Refining’s Role in Everyday Life
My most recent paper was published on the AFPI website on March 11. The paper discusses the essential role that refining plays in the provision of transportation and heating fuels, lubricants, asphalt, and chemicals. “Drill Baby Drill” is only the start, refining in the next key step.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Global demand for oil and gas will remain strong through 2050.
Pro-energy policies (like “Drill Baby, Drill”) combined with innovative, made-in-America technologies and policies (like fracking) will bolster domestic crude oil production. However, refineries are still needed to convert crude oil into usable products such as gasoline, propane, chemicals, and plastics.
The U.S. operates 132 refineries, representing 20% of global refining capacity.
Policy solutions should promote increased refining capacity, limit frivolous anti-energy litigation, stop the weaponization of capital against domestic energy producers, and bar the use of the “social cost of carbon” in agency rulemaking.
INTRODUCTION
Fossil fuels and nuclear power are the backbone of American energy dominance. Abundant natural gas provides low-cost, flexible energy for electricity generation, chemical and industrial processes, and heating. It also plays a critical role in bolstering our global food supply as a feedstock for fertilizers that sustain half of the world’s population (Antonini, 2023). However, the “drill, baby, drill” policy is only a starting point for reliable, affordable energy. Our domestic refining industry transforms crude oil and natural gas liquids (produced by drilling) into the valuable products we use to heat our homes, power industry, and improve our lives. To protect access to these essential fuels, energy policies should resist efforts to restrict their use while also recognizing their benefits for human health and well-being, as well as for the nation’s economy.
“DRILL, BABY, DRILL” IS ONLY THE START
Together, coal, gas, and petroleum products (i.e., materials derived from crude oil; natural gas) provided for more than 80% of the nation’s primary energy demand in 2023 (EIA, 2024a). Demand for reliable energy continues to grow globally; the February 2026 EIA Short-term Energy Outlook noted that coal use exceeded initial January 2026 estimates by 10% (EIA, 2026). In fact, in a January 2026 Varney & Co. interview, former Secretary of Energy and Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, went so far as to predict the U.S. is headed back to using coal (Varney & Co., 2026). Growing demand for energy has also led to predictions that natural gas and petroleum will “remain the most-consumed sources of energy in the United States through 2050” (EIA, 2022).
However, only 20 years ago, there were serious concerns that the U.S. had limited natural gas reserves. Dire warnings that we were reaching “peak oil” led the headlines, and experts predicted fuel shortages that would lead to “war, starvation, economic recession, possibly even the extinction of homo sapiens” (Bailey, 2006).
Thankfully, our energy future has drastically improved. Innovative American companies have developed groundbreaking technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, helping to unlock our abundant oil and natural gas resources (Nash et al., 2022). “Fracking,” as it is also known, has revolutionized hydrocarbon production, helping transform the U.S. from an energy importer, reliant on often unfriendly and volatile world markets, into a net energy exporter and the largest producer of crude oil ever (EIA, 2024a; Kreil, 2024).
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Click here to read the full paper on the AFPI website.
You can also download the PDF version from the AFPI website or by clicking below.
