House committee aims to end crude oil export ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted today to repeal the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil. In 2014, sixty-nine percent of voters opposed allowing oil and gas companies to export more U.S. oil and gas to foreign countries. Were the ban lifted, estimates suggest that oil exports would rise to 1.8 million barrels per day by 2017.

Friends of the Earth Oceans and Vessels Program Director Marcie Keever offers the following statement in response:

Repealing the crude oil export ban could cause disastrous impacts from the fossil fuel industry. A repeal would increase fracking, putting communities at even greater risk of air and water pollution and earthquakes. The escalation in crude by rail and ship would increase the frequency of exploding trains and oil spills across the country and in international waters. And lifting the ban would open the floodgates to more crude oil extraction and the burning of petroleum products, which would worsen the impacts of climate disruption.

The crude export ban is crucial to keeping dirty, dangerous, climate-disrupting fossil fuels in the ground where they belong. It’s time to increase incentives for a cleaner future with a fossil fuel free economy, instead of doubling down on a destructive, outdated system.

###

Expert contact: Marcie Keever, (510) 900-3144, [email protected]
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]