Overview
- The White House raised the idea in a meeting with nearly a dozen refiners, a development reported on Friday that signals officials are actively considering—but have not decided to invoke—the Defense Production Act for refining.
- The DPA has never been used to add U.S. refining capacity and an April presidential determination cleared the statute to be applied to petroleum production, refining and logistics.
- U.S. refineries are effectively at full stretch, with industry data showing about 98% utilization and the national average diesel price topping $6 a gallon, which limits spare capacity to absorb outages or demand spikes.
- Refiners told officials federal money would buy barrels faster if used for efficiency upgrades and expansions at existing plants rather than for building entirely new refineries, which take years and cost billions.
- A proposed 168,000‑barrel‑per‑day refinery in Brownsville, Texas, has been flagged as a possible test case but it is unclear whether any DPA support will go to the project and its ties to Trump‑linked investors add political scrutiny.