“Even as America pursues free-trade deals in Europe and Asia, its energy policy is built on a glaring inconsistency. Federal law allows the export of gasoline, diesel and other refined products, but not crude oil. That ban began in 1975, after the Arab oil embargo. It continues to this day, despite the harm it does to America’s credibility with its trading partners and the distortion it creates in the U.S. economy.
For years, the export ban didn’t matter much because the U.S. was by far the world’s biggest importer of oil. Now that North America is producing much more energy, the ban does matter. If shale-oil production continues to expand as forecast, domestic crude will be a glut on the U.S. market, reducing the incentive to maintain that production.”
I didn’t know that, for the last forty years, it’s been illegal for us to export crude oil. This should be repealed.
If crude oil exports are permitted, you can expect the price of gasoline here in the U.S. to go through the roof. As the U.S. dollar loses its credibility as a global reserve currency it has lost a lot of value over time, which means that on an open market we would have a harder time paying global prices for our own oil.