Lift US ban on oil exports, say GOP trio

A trio of Republican committee chairmen pitched lifting the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports on Wednesday, arguing it would help U.S. allies break their reliance on Russia and the Middle East.

In an op-ed in Foreign Policy Magazine, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John McCain (Ariz.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.) wrote that lifting the export ban could provide a lifeline for American allies that otherwise rely on imports from more hostile countries.

{mosads}Poland, for example, received 96 percent of its 2012 crude oil imports from Russia, the senators wrote, citing International Energy Agency estimates. Russia is behind one-third of oil imports in the European Union, while Middle East countries account for two-thirds of oil imports to Asian allies India, Japan and South Korea. 

“The benefits to global security of allowing oil shipments to our trading partners are obvious and indisputable,” the senators wrote. “Our friends in Asia, eager to comply with Western sanctions against Iran, would have a new alternative source for their energy needs. European allies, struggling to diversify away from Russia, would be able to receive U.S. domestic oil almost immediately.”

The op-ed comes from Senate GOP leaders on energy and foreign affairs issues. 

Murkowski is chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, McCain leads the Armed Services Committee and Corker is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Oil interests have said lifting the ban on crude oil exports, instituted in 1975 to respond to the OPEC oil embargo, is one of their highest priorities this Congress. Murkowski’s committee held a hearing on lifting the ban in March. Committee Democrats were uneasy with the proposal, and even Murkowski acknowledged that it might be difficult to make the case for allowing exports if consumers worry it would raise gas prices in the United States.