Lifting of crude oil export ban moves closer to reality

During last week’s Energy and Power Subcommittee markup for H.R. 702, legislation that would lift the outdated ban on exporting crude oil from the United States, allowing adaption for the changing conditions in the crude oil marketplace, the Subcommittee unanimously approved the measure and moved it towards full consideration by the House.

‘We are at a crossroads,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) during the opening statement for the markup. “The oil and gas industry, through rapid technological advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing and sheer force of will, has catapulted the United States into the world’s leading producer of energy.

“This development has occurred as access to resources on federal lands is more restricted than it has ever been,” Scalise, a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said. “Administrative agencies propose rules that are aimed at punishing fossil fuels; and as the White House speaks of an all of the above energy policy that has in reality been a huge giveaway of federal benefits to unproven advanced technologies that promise too much and deliver too little.”

Scalise explained that our nation has been struggling through a sluggish, protracted economic recovery creating too few jobs and no real wage growth to speak of. Yet, the American energy industry is able to continue, despite all of these obstacles.

“We find ourselves with a real opportunity, the first since the early 1970s, to continue the phenomenal growth we have witnessed thus far,” Scalise said. “And that opportunity lies in lifting the outdated ban on exporting crude oil from the United States.

Scalise said he supports Joe Barton and his legislation that lifts the ban.

“With this legislation, producers will have someplace to send crude that now sits in storage tanks,” Scalise said. “Our allies in other countries will now have an option other than Russia or less-than-friendly Middle Eastern regimes when purchasing crude. And finally, as we consider international implications of the Iran nuclear deal that we will consider later this month, it seems unreal that lifting sanctions on Iranian oil exports would not also be met with the same free-trading policy for commodities produced here at home.”