With gas company profits high, what's the incentive for building more refineries?

Question

People tell me the reason gas prices are going up is due to lack of refinery capacity. When I watch the news, I've heard oil execs "complain" about how there are so few refineries and more or less say we need to abolish environmental protections and then maybe they'll be consider building more. Isn't that a red herring? I mean, why would they EVER want to build more? They're making tons of money as is. If they built more, supply would increase, price would drop, and so would their profits. Profit is their reason for existence. By that same logic, if they discovered a new oil field, they probably would want to keep it quiet so as to fool people into believing there was a limited supply.

Answer 1

if, today, Exxon decided to build a refinery, between environmental impact studies, permits, etc zoning, you name it, it would be 15 years before even a shovelfull of dirt was turned.