The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Pitts is a member, will convene at 8 a.m. today to quickly move omnibus legislation designed to address spiraling energy prices.

During the session, Pitts intends to attach his bill that, if signed into law, would make three closed military bases the possible homes of new oil refineries.

Pitts, a Kennett Square Republican who represents Lancaster County, said he has spoken to Energy and Commerce chairman Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, and Pitts expects his bill will be accepted by the full committee. After that, it would be sent to the floor for a vote by the full House.

"I think our chances of getting my legislation attached are pretty good," Pitts said Tuesday. "I talked to the chairman, and he likes the idea, so that's a big hurdle."

Pitts' bill would direct the secretary of defense and the secretary of energy to identify and designate three closed military installations for the express purpose of building new oil refineries on them. The last refinery built in the United States was in Garyville, La., and it opened in 1976.

When refineries are damaged, as several were in Hurricane Katrina, closed for maintenance or closed in preparation for a disaster, as many were for Hurricane Rita, they can't simply be brought back online with the flip of a switch.

At least 15 refineries in Texas and Louisiana, which account for roughly 24 percent of U.S. oil production, were shut down as Rita approached. Valero Energy Corp. said Sunday its Houston and Texas City plants might begin processing within seven days; Exxon Mobil Corp. Monday said it is beginning to deliver gasoline from its Baytown refinery in Texas.

Experts have testified that just one new refinery could make a difference in oil prices, and Pitts said if he can get just one new plant out of his bill he'd be happy.

Pitts said when just one refinery goes offline because of a hurricane or maintenance, it causes a shortage in supply and a spike in prices.

The big obstacles that keep investors from building new refineries, Pitts said, are the numerous state and federal regulations which, if overcome, are almost always followed by litigation against the new refinery.

A refinery was proposed to be built near Portsmouth, Va., in the late 1970s, but environmental groups and local residents fought the plan.

It took almost nine years of court battles before investors canceled the project in 1984.

In other words, people want cheap fuel, but they want it made near someone else's home, Pitts said. But the one asset the government has in that battle is land.

Pitts' bill would make the three bases selected by the administration available for refinery development for two years only. After that, the land could be sold or used by the military as it sees fit.

Ideal sites would need to be large enough to house a refinery and be near ports and major highway systems to facilitate tanker deliveries of crude and truck and rail shipments of finished product, such as Pascagoula Naval Station in Mississippi, Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and Ingleside Naval Station in Texas.