US need more refineries, power plants and natural gas pipelines

Reacting to OPEC's decision to cut oil output, a top administration official stressed the need for a comprehensive national energy policy to curb US dependence on imported oil.
"We have a major energy crisis," chief presidential economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, told. But he noted that last year's gasoline price hikes had been sparked not only by high oil prices, exceeding $ 35 barrel, but also by a shortage of crude refining capacity in the United States. "We need more refineries, we need more power plants, we need more natural gas pipelines," Lindsey said.
The United States is the world's largest consumer of oil, importing three-quarters of the 19.4 mm barrels it guzzles up per day. Don Nickles, a top US Republican senator from Oklahoma, meanwhile that a comprehensive national energy policy would be adopted this year. "I expect by the end of the year we will be successful in passing a broad-based energy package that will help us on energy production... will help us reduce our dependency on OPEC," he noted.