Blue Dog Coalition Supports Ending Ban on Crude Oil Exports

Liz Margolis | Wednesday, September 9, 2015

WASHINGTON – The Blue Dog Coalition announced their support today for H.R. 702, a bill to repeal the ban on crude oil exports in the United States. The Coalition backs the bill as changing market conditions have proven that the 1970’s-era ban on crude exports is hopelessly outdated. Among countries with the largest energy reserves, the United States is the sole nation that prohibits the export of its own domestically-produced oil.

The bill repeals a section of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which gives the president the authority to restrict oil exports.

"It makes no sense that the U.S. can export refined oil products, but not crude oil," said Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration Kurt Schrader (OR-05). "Currently, crude oil from the U.S., one of the world’s leading producers, is excluded from determining the global market price of oil. In order to expand our markets and decrease gasoline prices globally, this ban must be lifted. Allowing U.S. oil into foreign markets also has the potential to increase stability in volatile regions of the world by creating competition on the global market and limiting the ability of countries like Russia to use crude oil as a political weapon. Lifting this ban would help improve the U.S.’s trade balance problem and improve the future budget picture for America. It’s high time that Congress moves forward on this commonsense, bipartisan and straightforward solution to a ban which has outlived its usefulness.”

Read the full press release here

The fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition was formed in 1995 with the goal of representing the center of the House of Representatives and appealing to the mainstream values of the American public.