Part D - Refinery Revitalization

42 USC 15951 - Findings and definitions

(a) Findings
Congress finds that

(1) it serves the national interest to increase petroleum refining capacity for gasoline, heating oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, and petrochemical feedstocks wherever located within the United States, to bring more supply to the markets for the use of the American people;

(2) United States demand for refined petroleum products currently exceeds the countrys petroleum refining capacity to produce such products;

(3) this excess demand has been met with increased imports;

(4) due to lack of capacity, refined petroleum product imports are expected to grow from 7.9 percent to 10.7 percent of total refined product by 2025;

(5) refiners are still subject to significant environmental and other regulations and face several new requirements under the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) over the next decade; and

(6) better coordination of Federal and State regulatory reviews may help facilitate siting and construction of new refineries to meet the demand in the United States for refined products.

(b) Definitions
In this part:

(1) Administrator
The term Administrator means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

(2) State
The term State means

(A) a State;

(B) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and

42 USC 15952 - Federal-State regulatory coordination and assistance

(a) In general
At the request of the Governor of a State, the Administrator may enter into a refinery permitting cooperative agreement with the State, under which each party to the agreement identifies steps, including timelines, that it will take to streamline the consideration of Federal and State environmental permits for a new refinery.

(b) Authority under agreement
The Administrator shall be authorized to

(1) accept from a refiner a consolidated application for all permits required from the Environmental Protection Agency, to the extent consistent with other applicable law;

(2) enter into memoranda of agreement with other Federal agencies to coordinate consideration of refinery applications and permits among Federal agencies; and

(3) enter into memoranda of agreement with a State, under which Federal and State review of refinery permit applications will be coordinated and concurrently considered, to the extent practicable.

(c) State assistance
The Administrator is authorized to provide financial assistance to State governments to facilitate the hiring of additional personnel with expertise in fields relevant to consideration of refinery permits.

(d) Other assistance
The Administrator is authorized to provide technical, legal, or other assistance to State governments to facilitate their review of applications to build new refineries.