Crude Oil Exports

TAKEAWAY: CRUDE OIL EXPORTS

And that brings me to my last point, where collaboration I think can help. And that’s, for years, we’ve advocated now the logical next step in the U.S. energy renaissance, and that’s exporting domestic crude that cannot be economically processed today in U.S. refineries.

Most exports from the U.S. have been banned since 1975, with only a few exceptions. That forces America to sell our crude at a discount to the already low discounted world price. That discount’s not passed on to the consumer because the refiners can trade their diesel and gasoline on world global product prices. But that discount is done to further decrease investment, is driven to decrease investment in both exploration and production, and that’s hampered the national economy, as I mentioned earlier.

Our industry over the last six months has lost some 200,000 jobs. And allowing exports would encourage renewed investment here at home, help save some of the existing jobs and create new ones, increase production of American oil, further improve the trade balance, generate tax revenue for the government, and importantly, it produces more savings to the consumers at the gas pump. Now, virtually all the studies, by universities, think tanks and even the government, agree. There’s strong bipartisan support in Congress, now if we can only get the administration to act. So that’s my number one on my wish list over the next few months.