HOUSTON, TEXAS – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today released a report detailing the history of past executive actions lifting restrictions on crude oil exports. The report contains 40 pages of presidential findings and U.S. Commerce Department decisions from multiple administrations representing both political parties.

The report begins with the 1981 decisions by the Reagan administration to decontrol petroleum products and crude oil and remove all quantitative restrictions on product exports. Petroleum product exports from the United States are now surging to record levels and are freely traded on global markets. The report traces the authorization of crude oil exports to Canada, as well as exports from Alaska.

The report – Past is Precedent: Executive Power to Authorize Crude Oil Exports – is available on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee website.

In 1992, the administration of George H.W. Bush determined exports of California heavy crude oil were in the national interest. The Clinton administration implemented this decision and, in cooperation with Congress, further authorized Alaskan North Slope exports in 1996.

Murkowski, the energy committee’s top Republican, will outline her ideas for lifting the federal prohibition on crude oil exports in a speech at CERAWeek here at 2 p.m. Central/3 p.m. Eastern.

Murkowski’s CERAWeek appearance follows on the heels of the release in January of her white paper on energy exports – A Signal to the World: Renovating the Architecture of U.S. Energy Exports.

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