Yes, it does go back to hypocrisy, but not like you think. Where would you put a refinery? The oil is offshore. You are going to build anything new along the coast if you build it. And in fact, that is where capacity is being added. The refineries inland where the oil is depleted have mostly shut down or are not expanded.

So your are looking at a few regions along coasts doing the bulk of the refining and will still be if new ones are built. If any one of these regions takes a major hit, supply will be cut. That's how "market efficiencies" tend to work, gigantism and infrastructure is favored over dispersed production.

I will also point out Gawain, that refineries have not been the limit (until the storm) because crude prices and gas are *now* moving idependently. They were not before, which is economic proof of what I was saying. I'm not sure of the percentage of refining that is out (on a bbl/day basis) but is looks like over 10% to me.