Refining
Our U.S. refineries are among the most sophisticated and complex in the world and are strategic assets critical to our nation’s economy and security. They support millions of jobs, provide billions of dollars in labor income and contribute significantly to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and balance of trade. They supply the energy and fuels that consumers in the United States and around the world need to thrive.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), petroleum will continue to fuel the world for years to come and as a result petroleum refiners will continue to support our economy.
Employment and Economic Contributions
The U.S. refining industry contributes significantly to the economy and supports millions of American jobs. In 2022, it supported nearly three million jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. These are jobs that require advanced skills and knowledge but not necessarily advanced degrees. Opportunities include crane operators, mechanics, data scientists, cybersecurity experts, welders, drone operators, meteorologists, environmentalists, and many more.
The nearly three million jobs created by the industry include 64,500 direct, 1,551,000 indirect and 1,351,900 induced. This high number of indirect and induced jobs means the industry has the largest jobs multiplier of any U.S. industry.
Employment is characterized by three groups of workers:
Direct employees are people who work on the ground at the facilities.
Indirect employees are those individuals who support refinery operations, including those at company headquarters, on- and off-site contractors and suppliers.
Induced workers are individuals who work at the businesses where our industries’ direct and indirect workers spend their money, including restaurants, grocery stores and auto repair shops.
The refining industry’s jobs multiplier is 46, meaning for every one job at a refinery, an additional 45 jobs were supported elsewhere in the economy.
The Future of Gas- and Diesel-Powered Cars
Less than 10% of new vehicles sold in the United States are battery electric vehicles. The rest are internal combustion engine vehicles, powered fully or partially by gasoline and diesel fuel. Despite this overwhelming consumer preference, in the last four years, the previous administration and several states sought to phase out and even ban sales of new internal combustion engine vehicles to spur the market for electric vehicles.
From 2020 to 2024, these “gas car ban” and “EV mandate” policies included:
AFPM spent 2024 raising awareness about these policies and ensuring elected officials knew exactly where their constituents stand. With AFPM drawing national attention to the issue, President Trump made “ending the EV mandate” a day one priority for his administration. Even former Vice President Harris had to confront the issue telling a crowd in Michigan she would never tell Americans what kinds of cars they must drive.
Until each of these policies — from EPA’s tailpipe rule to California’s gas car ban — are scaled back, fully unwound or defeated in court, AFPM will continue to push back and fight for Americans’ vehicle choice and the competitiveness of U.S. liquid fuels.
Travel on U.S. roads in 2023 reached an all time high of 3.26 trillion miles.6
Petroleum derived fuels supply the vast majority — almost 90% — of total U.S. transportation energy demand.7