House Votes to End U.S. Oil-Export Limits, Senate Vote Next

Lifting the ban, he wanted to convey, gives producers of light tight oil the ability to market unrefined product to countries around the world that not only want to work with the USA, but also have the refining infrastructure make-up to process light tight oil more so than heavier oil.

“The package would fund the government through the 2016 budget year, raise domestic and defense spending, and increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars by extending numerous popular tax credits without paying for them”, the Associated Press reported.

She said Democrats are “curious” to look more closely at the renewable energy tax incentives and whether they’ll offset the environmental impact of increased oil exports.

Although the lifting of the ban is not expected to significantly lead to exports for months or years, it but could extra flexibility to producers, reported BBC News.

At nearly 282 million barrels per day in September, output is approaching its 1970 record of 310.40 million bpd and is almost double U.S. production levels during the 2008 financial crisis which sank to about 147 million bpd. “Soon, it will be a reality, and another step toward building a confident America where we maximize – not squander – our energy renaissance”. “When we are restricted from exporting (oil) in essence our competitors – like OPEC, Venezuela and Russian Federation – have an advantage on us”, Hoeven said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was downright discouraged.

Allowing oil exports would be a win for the US oil industry and Republicans, who had argued that the ban was a relic of the 1970s Arab oil embargo.

Waters said the policies in the spending bill related to oil and clean energy would benefit New Mexico more so than other states, because this part of the state is also a leading innovator in solar production. In addition, US crude isn’t significantly cheaper than worldwide grades at the moment.

“It’s just more oil being introduced into a wildly oversupplied market”, said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital.

“The omnibus may be a short-term spending bill, but thanks to this provision it will deliver long-lasting benefits for our nation and the world”.

API thanked the bipartisan leaders in Senate and House for their efforts to get this legislation to the president’s desk. “But in a bigger sense, here we are, at a time when we want good-paying jobs, which we have here in our refineries, we’re shipping those jobs overseas”.

USA oil exports are “not going to happen Monday, but within a week or two, you’re going to see contracts be developed and a system come into place”, Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and the House’s chief advocate for ending the export restrictions, said in an interview Thursday.

“My goal is to advance policies that help working families – this bill does not do that”, Cassidy said.