Obama, EPA Wage War on Petroleum Products
Op Ed To the Delco Times:
Since taking office, President Barack Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have declared petroleum products public enemy number 1. In doing so, the president and the agency have unleashed a special kind of economic hell on the communities of Delaware County. Many workers living here are not just struggling to pay for the massive leap in gas prices and home-heating oil, but doing it while being laid off from the closed refineries.
It must be a deeply bitter pill for those workers to swallow. Many of the nearly 500 Marcus Hook refinery employees who were scheduled to be laid off received their last paychecks just a few weeks ago. If the refinery were to have remained open, it would still be providing jobs for these workers and would have helped keep gas prices down.
Unfortunately, it looks like things are about to get worse for Delaware County and the surrounding Philadelphia suburbs. ConocoPhillips and Sunoco have announced they are idling three Northeast refineries in the suburban Philadelphia area, which means even more layoffs. These closings represent 50 percent of the refining capacity in the Northeast. As more workers lose their refinery jobs, they will not only have to come to grips with the reality of unemployment, they will also have to grapple with the increased cost of fuel.
To read the rest of this story visit the Delaware County Times: click here.
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