Politicians that hate the US oil and gas industry are still trying to ban exports
Their true motive is clear.
Politicians against U.S. oil and gas exports have not stopped trying to reimpose a ban on exports. They asked President Biden to reimpose the ban in 2021 due to public concerns about rising gasoline prices. However, the Biden administration decided that reimposing the export ban would take too long, so a better plan would be to drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve instead, with no plans to refill it.
Now those same politicians are at it again. Seeing U.S. energy companies benefitting from the high oil and gas prices that Biden’s election caused was more than the energy industry haters could take. So they introduced a bill to make exporting U.S. crude oil and natural gas illegal.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation on May 18, 2023, that will reimpose a ban on U.S. fossil fuel exports, citing environmental hazards and possible impacts on domestic prices. The corresponding House bill, H.R. 3488, “To amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to reinstate the ban on the export of crude oil and natural gas in the United States, and for other purposes," was also introduced on May 18, 2023, by Representatives Adriano Espallat and Yvette Clarke, D.NY, and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Sen. Markey disputed the idea that the ban would result in higher prices for American consumers, saying that his bill benefits ordinary families because they “have to pay more on their natural gas bill because the big oil and gas companies want to sell it overseas, but that leaves less here, which drives up the price for natural gas for people who are trying to heat their homes.”
It is not surprising that Markey’s bill is supported by 70 Climate Groups who say that the U.S. should be “banned from exporting planet-warming fossil fuels.” Their May 17, 2023 letter to Congress said:
Dear Member of Congress:
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters nationwide, we write to ask you to support the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act. This legislation would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to reinstate the ban on the export of crude oil and ban the export of natural gas produced in the United States.
The United States is taking aggressive action to tackle the climate crisis and transition to create renewable energy solutions. But recent approvals for new fossil fuel projects to export fossil fuels are threatening people’s health and safety and stand in the way of global efforts to combat the climate crisis. Continued expansion of U.S. export infrastructure limits collective progress toward long-term energy security goals.
This legislation helps prioritize American consumers, protect the climate, promote environmental justice, and encourage the United States to establish self-sufficiency with our energy production. Reinstating the oil export ban will stop the unprecedented build-out of crude oil and LNG export facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast and slow record-breaking oil production in the Permian Basin. The spread of wells, pipelines, export terminals, tank farms and petrochemical facilities from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast is the result of Congress lifting the export ban and the fossil fuel industry racing to make record profits at the expense of long-suffering, low-income, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities and the climate.
Reinstating the oil export ban would protect American consumers, rather than pumping up Big Oil’s profits. Stopping crude oil exports would increase the domestic supply of oil available to U.S. refiners and would consequently help reduce prices at the pump here at home.
Rather than continuing to allow the oil and gas industry to perpetuate the climate crisis and harm communities locally and globally, Congress should end all oil and gas exports. We urge you to support the Block All New (BAN) Fossil Fuel Exports Act. We appreciate your attention to this matter and stand ready to work with you to end oil and gas exports.
The anti-fossil fuel NGOs say that the U.S. must stop exporting oil and natural gas to Europe and other countries because doing so hinders “efforts to combat the climate crisis.” One might wonder why these groups are not protesting China’s opening the equivalent of 2 new coal-fired power generation plants a week in 2022.
Contrary to Markey’s bill and the 70 climate groups’ letter, the U.S. shale revolution continues to benefit the U.S. and the world. Europe is certainly glad that the U.S. can export LNG to them to help them deal with their “dunkelflaute,” which caused their wind power to fail miserably and the need for LNG to replace Russian natural gas after the Ukraine invasion. U.S. companies were able to enter into long-term contracts to export LNG, which also helped propel the United States to being the world’s largest LNG exporter starting in the first half of 2022.
Calls to end U.S. exports of fossil fuels are just one of the many signs that Malthusianism is at the heart of the worldwide movement to end fossil fuels. If that isn’t clear enough, John Kerry stated earlier this month that slashing farm emissions is critical to fighting climate change. He couldn’t be any clearer.