March 19, 2012:

Rep. Patrick Meehan is holding a hearing today on local Philadelphia area refinery closures and how they could seriously affect the economy. Meehan told Fox 29’s Good Day program that the ultimate cost of shuttering the refineries could be more than 10,000 jobs. He is also asking for the logic behind the refinery closures and experts from various sectors will speak to those issues at his conference on Monday. Meehan says he seeking answers for measures that could drastically affect the economy in the Northeast. “They are talking about 10,000 to 20,000 people could be implicated, we know there will be 2,000 jobs if all the refineries will be closed. What we are dealing with now is Marcus Hook, which is completely closed and the possibility of Conoco, which is out of work now and still up for sale,” he said.

Meehan said the real issue is the logistics for moving products from other parts of the country by next winter to make up for the closed refineries. “They claim we have capacity in the country but I question if it can meet all of our needs.”In all, there are three refineries in the Philadelphia area that are affected.  Sunoco owns two of the refineries, and it says profit margins are not enough for them to keep the plants open.  ConocoPhillips is the owner of a third plant.

By MyFox Philadelphia