“To avoid more global warming impacts like the floods, drought and intense storms already devastating parts of our country, we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition to 100 percent pollution-free energy”, Environment Massachusetts state director Ben Hellerstein said in a statement.
Advertisement
Recently the House passed a bill that would lift restrictions on crude oil exports from the U.S. The measure is on its way to the Senate where analysts say it faces a tough battle – a battle that may not even win the ultimate war as President Barack Obama has promised to veto the bill. Lifting the trade restrictions on oil exports would give America greater foreign policy influence, bolster our trade competitiveness and market access, and would ensure our allies and trading partners have greater access to secure supplies of energy.
With Friday’s vote, the House has set up a showdown with Mr. Obama on energy, pitting the White House’s climate change agenda against the bipartisan position that expanding USA oil-and-gas production, and allowing American fuel to be sold overseas, will benefit the nation.
USA refiners are generally equipped to handle heavy, sulphur-laden oil. Unless they see expanded export opportunities, they may restrict further drilling.
The White House called the bill unnecessary and argued that a decision on whether to end the ban should be made by the Commerce secretary.
At least 150,000 oilfield workers have lost their jobs thanks to the price slump. The Obama White House has not celebrated the surge in oilfield hiring over the past several years, but it has been one of the bright lights among our slow-growth gloom. “New technologies have enabled our domestic energy industry to produce more and cut our imports of foreign oil”, Yoho said on Friday. “Because of low-priced energy abundance, 100 factories are set to come on line by 2017”. If he does, he will meet substantial resistance from those who think lifting the ban will raise gas prices and delay the nation’s conversion to “green” sources of energy: wind, water, and solar.
Obama is joined by fellow Democrats resistant to lifting the export ban.
Innovations in oil development have produced an energy boom that’s upended global markets and turned the United States into the largest combined oil and gas producer on earth. Their sound bites play well on TV but reveal willful ignorance of how the energy markets work.
They, along with other supporters, point to a host of benefits, including federal data showing how allowing oil exports will help American consumers. And, for both countries, prices are set globally, by supply and demand. And earlier this week, the White House said the president would veto the bill if it cleared the Senate. No one thought it was possible. The oil boom overloaded domestic refining capacity and prices fell dramatically against worldwide prices. That is the situation today.
Advertisement
The issue of oil exports has, to a few degree, divided the Democratic Party. “And it is an important test of the efficacy of the functioning of our democracy whether within the next nine months we will get to that correct solution”.
