The marketing slogan of Delta is “We love to fly.” The Atlanta-based airline has proven its love is so deep, it now will refine its own jet fuel.
Delta Airlines has purchased a soon-to-be-idled ConocoPhillips refinery in Pennsylvania. The site, along with its pipelines and 185,000-barrel-per-day production capacity, now is Delta’s for the price of a wide-body aircraft, according to Richard Anderson, Delta’s CEO.
In a recent interview, Anderson noted that the refinery purchase would cut the cost of jet fuel. The airline spent $11.8 billion for fuel in 2011 alone and fuel is “the fastest single growing cost in our book of expense at Delta,” he said.
According to Delta’s statement, the fuel produced at the Trainer, Pa., refinery would be used to provide 80 percent of the company’s fuel needs in the United States.
While Delta loves to fly, America loves to work, grow and prosper. It seems our politicians should take note of the need for domestic oil exploration and production that moves our economy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson nailed it: “Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.”