Oil companies are making a windfall. Here’s why they keep closing refineries.

Oil companies are making a windfall. Here’s why they keep closing refineries.

“Five refineries have shutdown in the United States in just the past two years, reducing the nation’s refining capacity by about 5 percent and eliminating more than 1 million barrels of fuel per day from the market, leaving the remaining facilities straining to meet demand. Yet even at this lucrative moment for what’s left of the refining industry, a White House desperate to bring down gas prices is having little success persuading owners to expand operations,” The Washington Post’s Evan Halper reports.