Steve Scalise and the republican party want to do away with the ban on American oil exports that has been in place for many years and for a reason. Now with falling oil and gasoline prices the industry has been laying off employees and cutting back on drilling and production.
There are three reasons for the falling prices, a glut of oil on the market (over supply), OPEC's decision not to cut back their production and alternate fuels. So the domestic oil industry wants the export ban lifted so they can start exporting their glut of oil and tighten the supply and demand to raise the price of oil and gasoline once again. The industry wants the price of a barrel of oil to be around $90 per barrel.
The Federal Energy Department did a study on the matter according to a Times Picayune article of 9/2/15 and found that (1) lifting the ban likely won't increase prices at the pump and might even result in a small price reduction. (2) the report also states global supply and demand, not exports will be the major factor in determining future oil prices. Scalise tries to use those words to justify lifting the ban, but the report is not a conclusive one and that is why they use the word "likely" in (1) above. In (2) above the report talks about future oil prices that supply and demand will have an effect on not the current price and that is what exports would do. That is what the oil industry is looking for.
The fact of the matter is President Obama has recently approved the export of a certain amount of U.S. crude to be exported to Mexico. The President has the authority to do so and this is not the first exception to the ban. This Mexico story was carried in the Times Picayune of 8/15/15 and points out the ban on exports was put into place for national security reasons. Of course Scalise knows all of that.
What is going on here is proof of what this writer has commented on here in "PolitiDose" many times over in the past. The oil and gas industry will never make America independent of foreign oil and for the reasons stated in those commentaries. Scalise and other elected officials who are the mouth piece for the oil industry have no record of any policy that would actually provide the opportunity for the U.S. to become independent when it comes to the country's energy needs.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
