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Lawmakers want to end oil export ban
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 20, 2015
In 1975, Congress banned the export of crude oil from the United States.
Forty years later, Ohio lawmakers are pushing for a reversal of that decision.
Sen. Troy Balderson, R-Zanesville, has introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 into the Ohio General Assembly.
The resolution urges the federal government to lift the prohibition on the export of crude oil from the United States.
“The need for this resolution dates back to the 1970s when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries withheld production, causing oil prices to soar,” Balderson said.
“In 1975, then-President Gerald Ford signed into law the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which prohibited the export of crude oil from the United States.”
The prohibition was originally enacted as a response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo.
“The intention of this action was to preserve domestic price ceilings by preventing domestic producers from receiving higher world oil prices and also to preserve a depleting domestic reserve,” Balderson said.
Since that time, SCR 6 states the use of directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies in shale formations in the U.S. has made the country more crude oil independent.
“Although price controls and all other measures related to the 1973 embargo have since been eliminated, the export ban has remained in place,” Balderson said, adding that the U.S. is currently exporting more than 4 million barrels of refined products each day.
“Yet the prohibition on the export of crude oil continues.”
SCR 6 states that the continued oil production in Ohio and across the country is “providing an opportunity for economic growth and stability through the export of crude oil.”
“Thus, the prohibition on exports of crude oil is no longer necessary,” the resolution reads.
Balderson said he believes repealing the export ban on oil would increase global oil supplies and therefore put downward pressure on prices, including the price of gasoline in America.
“The U.S. is the only major oil-producing country in the world that bans the export of crude, which places U.S. producers at a competitive disadvantage,” he said.
“Should Congress lift this antiquated prohibition, the U.S. would see an increase in jobs, improved national security and a more level playing field for our domestic producers.”
Talk of rescinding the ban has swirled around the federal government for years.
Last week, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner called for lifting the prohibition.
Like Balderson, he said the move would help create jobs, lower energy prices and support the country’s allies.
“Until recently, our nation’s energy policy was rooted in a scarcity mindset that went back to the 1970s. But now, America is experiencing an energy boom and our policy needs to follow suit,” he said, adding that eliminating the ban would provide a “big boost to our economy.”
“Lifting the ban would create an estimated one million jobs here at home — jobs that would frankly get created in every state. It would help bring down prices at the pump for consumers. And it would be good for our allies.”
Boehner said if the administration wants to lift the prohibition for Iran “certainly the United States should not be the only country left in the world with such a ban in place.”
“I would support lifting the ban and I hope that we can work together in a bipartisan fashion to bring our energy policies into this century,” he said.
Balderson urged state lawmakers to back SCR 6.
“With as much economic growth that oil production can provide, lifting the ban and allowing producers to become more competitive is good for the U.S. and good for Ohio,” he said.
SCR 6 is before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The resolution has gained bipartisan support from Sens. Cliff Hite, Jim Hughes, Frank LaRose, Bill Seitz and Sandra Williams.
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