EPA permitting, indeed.
I have often wondered how much technology since the sixties or seventies may have changed the refining business (since I recall our last major one was built in the mid-seventies?) or how much of it is still pretty much the same in respects, or how much productivity or reliability has been improved.
Or how much technology has allowed the industry to either meet or get around the walls placed by the environmentalists.
BP Whiting was built in 1889 by Rockefeller, and yet about 70% of the plant is less than 10 years old.
There are some buildings there that date back to the early 1900's, but what's in them and what they do is more modern.
The technologies for the individual units has changed significantly since the last refinery was built, however this is a function of licencing a more update design.