AFX Europe (Focus): US FTC clears Shell decision to shut California refinery
26 May 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) – A Federal Trade Commission investigation of Shell Oil Company’s decision to shut a California refinery found the company did nothing wrong, the government agency said.
Shell’s announcement that it would shut its Bakersfield refinery by Oct 1, 2004, triggered a storm of accusations by consumer groups and lawmakers that the company was trying to drive up gasoline prices by cutting refining capacity.
“The commission found no evidence to substantiate this,” the FTC said in a statement late Wednesday.
California is especially vulnerable to refinery closures. Its strict fuel emissions standards — the toughest in the United States — make it hard to import gasoline from other states. And, like the rest of the nation, California has not built a new refinery in nearly three decades.
These two factors result in Californians paying about 40 cents a gallon above the national average for unleaded gasoline.
After coming under intense public scrutiny over its decision to shut the refinery, Shell ended up selling it to a unit of Flying J Inc, a privately-held Utah company that plans to continue running the facility.
In its ruling, the FTC went on to say that its findings would have been the same even if the refinery had not been sold.
Shell said it based its original decision to shut the Bakersfield refinery, built in the early 1930s, on the costly upgrades needed to keep it competitive and on the dwindling supply of crude from nearby oil fields in the state’s southern San Joaquin Valley. The plant can process about 70,000 barrels a day of oil when running flat out.
Shell Oil is the US subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell Group.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
