White House worked with buyout firm to save refinery, union jobs

The White House played a role in encouraging a private-equity firm to rescue a Philadelphia oil refinery, whose imminent closure by owner Sunoco threatened to raise gasoline prices higher before the election, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, kick-started discussions to sell the refinery to Carlyle Group. To help seal the deal, expected to be made final in September, the Obama administration and state regulators agreed to loosen environmental restrictions on the refinery, according to the report.

Carlyle last month said it would take a two-thirds stake in the refinery and invest at least $200 million to upgrade it. This staved off the potential for fuel-price increases and saved 850 union jobs in Pennsylvania, a prospective battleground state in November. In September 2011, Sunoco said it planned to quit the refining business and sell refineries in Philadelphia, according to the report.