According to a press release, when the refinery opens in 2027, it should only produce 5% of the greenhouse gas emissions and use 10% of the water a normal refinery would. If all goes according to plan, the facility will only use renewable energy to power the refining process.
The City of Cushing expects the project to create hundreds of permanent jobs at the refinery in addition to over a thousand temporary construction jobs. They project the plant will generate $13 billion in economic benefits over its first decade.
Cushing, which bills itself as the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World,” has been producing, refining and transporting oil for over a century. The city was once home to more than 50 refineries, according to the American Oil and Gas Historical Society, although the last two closed in the 1980s.
Two of those former refineries are now part of the federal Superfund program, which cleans up contaminated sites across the country, and another is participating in the state’s Voluntary Cleanup Program.
Cushing beat out a site near the Gulf Coast in Texas for the “next-generation” Southern Rock Energy Partners refinery. The announcement comes days after a company called Enel unveiled a $1 billion solar panel factory in Inola, just northeast of Tulsa.
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