Increasing the Value of Energy Exports

[ProcessEngineer (Jim Moore)]

Reinstate the crude oil export ban that was in place since 1975 and was repealed in 2015 by President Obama. This ban required that all oil would be refined in U.S. refineries before being allowed to leave our country. Our country would profit then not only from the energy being exported in the form of gasoline, diesel, and chemicals (vs raw crude), but would create jobs to make the refined product and build new US refining /chemical facilities. This would be a win for US oil/refining companies and a win for the environment as we have the highest clean air standards for refining. Since 2017 approximately 1.2 million barrels of US refining capacity has been shutdown with additional recent announcements of shutdowns planned for next year. By reimplementing the ban over several years (to allow for restart of idled facilities), we can increase export value without hurting production. A ban on export barrels would incentive the startup of many of these shutdown refineries that are on waterways to become export refineries. In addition, new refineries could be built to accommodate more export barrels to balance with crude oil production. The export of gasoline, diesel, and chemicals to the world will increase our exports dollars to resolve our trade imbalance and truly allow pure “energy dominance”.