Murkowski: Lifting Export Ban Shows America’s Strength as Energy Superpower
Energy Panel Chairman Touts Benefits of Crude Oil Exports to Alaska, Nation
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today highlighted her efforts to lift the outdated ban on domestic crude oil exports as the Senate considers the omnibus budget bill that includes a provision to lift the ban. During her remarks Thursday on the Senate floor, Murkowski touted the benefits for Alaska and the nation as a whole that come with domestic crude oil exports.
“By lifting the export ban, Congress is sending a signal to the world that America is ready to lead as an energy superpower,” Murkowski said. “We produce more energy than ever before. We also export more than ever before. And we are now poised to enter the global crude and global LNG markets, even as we continue to export coal, natural gas liquids, and petroleum products. This is a win-win for our nation and our allies.”
Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pointed to her home state as an example for the rest of the world to follow especially when it comes to energy policy as Alaska has been able to export crude oil since 1996.
“Alaskans already know what Americans will soon know: that energy trade, so long as we are the exporter, is a great source of jobs, revenues, growth, and prosperity,” Murkowski said. “Lifting the ban will also be good for Alaska: it will alleviate competition for our oil at West Coast refineries, increase the price we receive for Alaska North Slope crude, and remove all remaining uncertainty about our long-term ability to export.”
Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, first proposed lifting the 40-year-old ban on oil exports in a speech at the Brookings Institution in January 2014. She continued to build a solid case for modernizing U.S. energy trade policies with a series of white papers, speeches and calls for government and independent analysis. In July, the energy panel favorably reported out Murkowski’s Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act (S. 2011), including language to fully repeal the outdated restrictions on exporting American crude oil.
Murkowski, while strongly supportive of the provision to end the ban on crude oil exports included in the omnibus, has not yet decided whether to support the bill’s final passage.
