In 1942, German submarines were sinking oil tankers along the Atlantic coast, threatening the fuel supply of the eastern United States. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes had already been pressing for pipelines to carry Texas oil to those markets, but federal officials had refused his requests for steel twice in 1941 and again after Pearl Harbor.
The War Production Board approved the first section of the Big Inch in June 1942. Washington financed construction, and a private company built the government-owned system from Texas to the Northeast. The Big Inch carried crude oil, while the Little Big Inch carried refined products. Completed in 1943 and 1944, the lines moved fuel overland and freed tankers for the shorter voyage across the Atlantic.
After the war, coal producers and railroads fought conversion of the lines to natural gas because they feared the competition. Texas Eastern acquired them in 1947 and began moving gas from the Southwest to eastern customers. Builders subsequently installed roughly half the mainline gas transmission network still operating today during the 1950s and 1960s. Generations of American businesses have benefited from that willingness to connect distant parts of the country, with new employers arriving long after the original construction crews had left.
Westbound
Phillips 66 stopped making fuel at its Los Angeles refinery late last year, and Valero finished idling the processing units at its Benicia refinery in April. California still has operating refineries, but these losses have made an already isolated fuel market more dependent on replacement supply. Valero told investors it would meet its Northern California obligations through imports or other supply arrangements after Benicia stopped refining. California's major refineries have also supplied most of Nevada's transportation fuel and nearly half of Arizona's, extending the consequences well beyond the state.
California has no operating pipeline bringing refined fuel west from the major refining centers in Texas and the Midwest. Natural gas pipelines already serve the state, and fuel pipelines carry California products east into Arizona and Nevada. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel needed to replace lost California production generally have to arrive by ship. The California Energy Commission lists India, South Korea and the United Kingdom among the state's overseas fuel suppliers, alongside deliveries from other American coasts.
The United States produced a record 13.6 million barrels of crude oil a day in 2025. American refineries on the Gulf Coast produce more fuel than their region consumes, yet California remains outside the pipeline network that could bring that supply west. A country with our resources should have dependable domestic routes between its producing regions and its major markets. We should be building additional pipelines across the continental United States, including the east-west connections that would let more Americans benefit from the energy produced and refined here.
Phillips 66, Kinder Morgan and HF Sinclair approved their Western Gateway investment in August to bring fuel from Gulf Coast and Midwestern refineries into Arizona and California. A new line from Borger, Texas, to Phoenix would connect with an existing line whose flow would be reversed toward California. Designed to carry 230,000 barrels a day, the system is targeting completion in 2029, subject to permits. Western Gateway should receive the approvals needed to meet that date, opening the western market to more American fuel and competition among domestic suppliers.
Refine it here
U.S. refining capacity fell by more than 250,000 barrels a day during 2025, to 18.2 million at the start of this year, before Benicia's shutdown. Small expansions at other plants offset some of the losses, but the national total still moved backward. We need more American refining capacity to replace lost domestic production and supply markets that have become more dependent on finished fuel from abroad. New connections to those markets would also give refiners more customers to justify expansion.
ExxonMobil added 250,000 barrels a day at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery in 2023, roughly the capacity of a midsized refinery. The $2 billion expansion connected additional processing capacity with crude arriving from the Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Construction began in 2019 and continued through the pandemic. The company brought it into service on schedule and on budget, adding production that the country could use as demand recovered.
Other expansions should follow where existing refineries have room to grow, and new refineries should remain possible where demand and access to crude support them. Modernization should include equipment for processing different grades of oil, along with the pipelines bringing crude in and carrying finished fuel out.
U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude rose from 200,000 barrels a day in January to 701,000 in July, the latest month in the Energy Information Administration's published series. Much of Venezuela's production is heavy crude, well suited to the complex refineries American companies built along the Gulf Coast. Those plants have equipment for breaking down heavier oil and removing sulfur, allowing them to turn a difficult raw material into valuable transportation fuels. Valero said in July that it had shifted toward more Venezuelan crude following disruptions to Canadian supply in June.
American shale production supplies a great deal of lighter crude, so importing heavier barrels can complement domestic production. The refinery's equipment and the prices of available crude determine the blend it processes. Buying a suitable raw material abroad while doing the processing in the United States retains American industrial work. Replacing a closed refinery's output with imported gasoline transfers that work to the supplier, even though Americans continue buying the finished product.
American refineries operate under enforceable air and water requirements, and modern equipment can improve their efficiency while reducing pollution. New capacity should incorporate strong emissions controls and replace less efficient processing where practical. Building and modernizing here keeps that production within reach of American inspectors, gives us control over the standards it must meet and preserves the skilled workforce needed to improve it.
American capacity
China received 69% of Venezuela's crude exports in 2023, according to EIA's country assessment. American refiners are now buying substantially more Venezuelan oil, and their ability to handle those heavy barrels gives them a basis for competing for the processing work. We should welcome that business into American plants and build the connections needed to sell their output throughout the country.
China imported 11.1 million barrels of crude a day in 2024, with 92% arriving by sea. The United States has both enormous domestic production and refineries capable of drawing on additional supplies from abroad. Expanding our plants and connecting them to more markets would strengthen an industry that serves Americans while supplying other countries. American refiners should compete for more of our allies' fuel purchases, using those sales to support further investment here and take business from rival suppliers.
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia have developed shale gas fields much closer to northeastern customers than the older southwestern sources. New pipelines should carry more of that supply into the Northeast and south to growing industrial markets. Gas remains a fuel for factory furnaces and a raw material for chemical production, as well as a source of electricity for computing and manufacturing. The industrial investment America wants to attract requires physical connections to that supply, including storage and dependable delivery to the plants that will use it.
Approve and build
Dominion Energy and Duke Energy canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in 2020 after its estimated cost rose from 4.5–5 billion to $8 billion. The project was intended to serve Virginia and North Carolina, and the companies said customers had recently renewed commitments for about 90% of its capacity. Even after winning a Supreme Court case over its route beneath the Appalachian Trail, they cited continuing permit uncertainty and delays in abandoning it.
California has encouraged a transition away from petroleum while still relying on refineries to supply most of its transportation fuel. Companies considering investments that take decades to recover have to judge how long the state will welcome their operations. Federal and state policy should support continued investment in the capacity that demand still requires, including upgrades that make existing plants cleaner and more productive. The cost of replacing lost production falls on consumers well before a government's desired transition is complete.
Congress should establish a clear national interest in moving energy across state lines and give major interstate projects a dependable path to construction. Agencies should review applications together under an enforceable schedule, and courts should resolve challenges promptly. Once a project has met the requirements, its approval should remain usable through changes in administrations. Developers need a decision they can rely on long enough to finance and finish the work.
Landowners deserve compensation, and neighboring communities deserve safe construction and enforcement of pollution limits. Those obligations should be settled through a process capable of authorizing a project and letting work proceed. Environmental group Food & Water Watch has pledged to fight the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline, intended to bring more gas to New York City and Long Island, until it is defeated. Elected officials who support construction have to defend the decision to build even when opponents would prefer the project never existed.
Republicans Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Mike Lee of Utah joined Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico on a permitting bill introduced September 30. Their Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act would protect approved projects against certain later reversals and change parts of the review process. It gives Congress a current opportunity to make construction more dependable. The coalition should carry that work through both chambers, with a framework broad enough to advance pipelines and refining alongside new electricity infrastructure.
Western Gateway's planned 2029 opening should be followed by other completed connections, with additional American refining capacity feeding them. The next decade ought to leave the country better able to move its energy east and west, and to supply regions whose industrial demand outgrows the network they inherited. Building that system would keep more processing and manufacturing in the United States while giving future businesses infrastructure they won't have to spend years trying to secure. We have the resources to support a much larger American industrial economy, and we should approve and build the facilities that let us use them.