Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, reiterated the importance of having better data and analysis on the potential impacts of lifting the ban on crude oil exports, before reversing the decades-old policy.  

“The information we have thus far is inconclusive to how lifting the ban on oil exports may impact consumers – especially those in the Pacific Northwest, who experience some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation,” Sen. Cantwell said.  

In an April hearing, on the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook, Sen. Cantwell renewed a request by her and Sen. Wyden for a regional price analysis of any change to the current export policy. EIA agreed to provide such an analysis, but has not yet done so. Sen. Cantwell cannot support reversing the ban until it is clear that doing so will not cause economic harm those in the Pacific Northwest (i.e., even higher gasoline prices) or significantly increase crude-by-rail traffic.
 
In 1975, Congress banned exports of American crude oil in response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo that drastically increased the price but decreased the availability of oil in the global market. The goal of the ban was to retain as much domestically produced crude oil within the U.S. and limit America’s energy reliance on foreign markets.

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