From Utah Bill's link post #999:
In 1982 - 301 operable oil refineries processing 17.9 million barrels of oil per day.
Today - 149 refineries processing 17.4 million barrels.
T
How do you think they got the same output with fewer physical facilities. Expansion and efficiency. This began in the '80s by shutting down facilities that were incapable of being upgraded for downstream processing and/or 'debottlenecking' or were unable to meet environmental requirements or commercial requirements while expanding and making the remaining facilities more efficient.
Over that time, the facility I worked for doubled it's unleaded gasoline production and just before I left they added a new crude still, a new coker and a sulphur plant. Other companies were doing the same thing. No new refineries were built, but capacity kept up with demand.
The 'no new refineries built since..', is nothing but a 'fits on a bumper sticker talking point' championed by the 'drill baby drill' crowd.
In refining, except in rare instances, the run doesn't exceed capacity.
This link is to a graph to explain what I'm talking about. Although it only goes up to 2004, it also go back to 1973 to show the history of the U.S. having the capacity to process the crude it needs.
U.S. Refining Capacity, Crude Runs, and Utilization Rate