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Gasoline prices at the pump in the U.S. are artificially LOW right now. This is because the crude oil produced in North America can't be delivered and refined fast enough right here in North America -- due to pipeline capacity constraints and tight refining capacity.

This is reflected in an unusual gap between the market prices for West Texas Intermediate oil (the North American benchmark price) and Brent Crude oil (the European benchmark price) in recent years. Historically, WTI has been more expensive than Brent. But WTI is about 5% to 6% cheaper than Brent right now because of the pipeline capacity and refining capacity factors I described above -- and because WTI cannot be exported from the U.S.

Lift the cap on the export restrictions, and WTI suddenly becomes more expensive because then it would be available to buyers all over the world. In effect, the U.S. would increasingly resemble a Third World country where more and more of our own citizens wouldn't be able to afford the crude oil that we export to other nations.

This is the REAL driving force behind the Keystone XL project, by the way. It has nothing to do with providing more oil for U.S. consumers, and has everything to do with getting more pipeline capacity from the Great Plains and western Canada down to the Gulf Coast ... to be refined and exported.

This is the only English I know -- so if you can't understand it, then too bad. I'm not Canadian, either.