Murkowski tries to end 40-year-old crude oil export ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill to repeal the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil. The ban was a response to the 1973 oil embargo and was intended to keep crude at home, decrease reliance on foreign oil and protect America’s economy from heavy fluctuations in global oil markets. 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 ban would open the floodgates to more crude oil extraction and the burning of petroleum products, which would worsen the impacts of climate disruption. A repeal would increase fracking, putting communities at even greater risk of air and water pollution and earthquakes. Exploding trains and oil spills would become more frequent as the amount of crude transported across the country and shipped abroad skyrocketed. Keeping the crude export ban in place would help to keep this dirty, dangerous, climate-disrupting fossil fuel in the ground where it belongs.

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