Regulating Competition in Oil: Government Intervention in the U.S. Refining Industry, 1948-1975

The full cost of the failing energy policies of the United States can be measured by out vulnerability to the dictates of foreign oil-producing countries. U.S. government policy has traditionally been aligned in support of independent oil refiners against the dominance of refining by the major oil companies, with the intent of ensuring competition. At the same time, petroleum policies of the last quarter-century have been justified on grounds of the need for national energy security. Those ...