Crude oil exports would benefit Great Lakes Region, says Sen. Murkowski

US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has passed a bill supporting removal of the 40 year old ban for crude oil exports. The bill is replete with unsexy stuff, like legislative housekeeping, to repeal out-of-date energy laws.

That is according to a report released by Deloitte Energy Services, which estimates that Iran’s crude oil production could jump from about 2.8 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2015 to between 3 and 3.7 MMbbl/d in 2016. Imports began falling again in 2006, largely the result of the U.S. domestic production boom. “There is more oil imported into the U.S. today than in 1975 when Congress enacted the crude oil export ban”.

Murkowski said lifting the ban would turn the U.S. into an energy superpower. Cantwell says it helped that Murkowski invited every member to present any bill they wanted to the committee.

During today’s hearing, the committee also passed on a bipartisan vote an energy efficiency bill sponsored by Sen.

“I think the bill, as crafted, is the compromise”, Cantwell said in opposition.

Though low prices in the short-term are welcome, there is a flip side too for oil producers like Cairn India, which reported a 24 percent drop in net profit for the first quarter ended June, caused by the fall in crude prices.

The group Oceana called it “a massive give-away to Big Oil and a slap in the face to coastal communities that have vocally opposed offshore drilling”.

Previous versions of the bill, which is backed by companies such as Dow Chemical Co. and National Grid, an worldwide electricity and gas company based in the United Kingdom and northeastern U.S., have been brought to the Senate floor in the past but have stalled amid fights over amendments.

“Free trade in energy will allow America to harness the full economic opportunities created by our energy revolution”, said American Petroleum Institute Executive Vice President Louis Finkel. “We urge the House and Senate to quickly send this important legislation to the president’s desk”. The component would expand federal oil and gas revenue sharing to Alaska, southern Mid-Atlantic coastal states, and more of the US Gulf Coast. Murkowski claims her favorite part of the bill is that it eliminates the need for the Energy Department to produce scores of useless annual reports. “But in the longer term, my legislation will ensure that the State of Alaska and coastal communities supporting development will receive a substantial share of the revenues from production to compensate for the impacts of development”.

The major bill, the Energy Policy Modernization Act, gives a bit of something to everyone: It would ease the permitting process for natural gas pipelines but also permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supports parks and public lands.