OK, I'm open minded on this premise. I've been under the impression that this would be a good thing for our economy. Someone convince me it's not.
Here are what I believe are some of the arguments against the premise that the freedom to export our oil is a bad thing:
We are not providing this oil free of charge. Dollars come into the coffers of American (in this case Texas) extractors, and therefore by definition provide employment to Americans. More jobs at the wells, more jobs in transport, more jobs at the port. Do we want more export of American produced goods and services, or not?
We have to assume that if the oil being exported were more "needed" by American refiners, then the refiners would simply out-bid the European purchasers. The market is therefore saying that this oil is redundant, and absent the European buyers, might remain in the ground, no?
I'm not sure that, with the American shale-oil boom, that it can be said that we are still "dependent"on foreign oil. Perhaps we have reached a point where we are dependent on cheaper-to -extract foreign oil, and foreign oil that our refineries are better suited to refine at this time. The cause of this can be attributed to the severe regulations regarding the building of new refineries in our country, geared to process the different consistency of this "new" American crude, is this not a factor?
I'd like to import nothing at all, but to me the benefit to consumers is always forgotten in these discussions. I've always felt that the reason the left hates Walmart so much is that, on net, Walmart has done more for the American poor than all the Democrat party "programs" combined, via cheaper prices. Should we deprive American consumers this benefit, admittedly provided by China and others willing to enable Walmart to put cheaper goods on our shelves? Isn't the solution to the problem worse than the problem, in that only an over-bearing federal government can remedy this situation? Economic freedom cannot accrue to American consumers if American companies cannot enjoy the same freedoms, this is the reality, and always will be.
From the geo-political standpoint, how can the fact that the OPECkers are now begging us to keep buying their crude not indicate that it is far less dangerous to purchase their oil than admittedly it once was? Our allies in Europe are the buyers of this American crude, isn't it making them less reliant on purchasing from the Middle East, and perhaps more importantly, from Vladimir Putin? How does this net out from a geo-political standpoint? Don't we still need friends? (I know....Obama. Fly in the ointment here, but not much longer.....).
The one thing that makes me think I might be wrong, and those who think this new "right" to export is a bad thing may be right, is that Obama allowed it to happen, and therefore, it must be bad for our country in some way. I just can't get my head around why he has allowed this to happen. It's completely out of character. Perhaps others on this board can enlighten me?
At any rate, I can be convinced that maybe it is a bad thing that our extractors now have the right to export, but I'd like to hear more evidence from those who make that claim.
Excellent post.
Frankly, the only good rationale that I can imagine for government intervention in export/import markets is national security.
If Reagan (or Cruz?) were President, he might take the very actions we are taking so as to undermine our enemies. As it is, we can credit our oil producers, and hydraulic fracturing, with upsetting the OPEC apple-cart.
Right with you on the gut feeling on this.
Baraq has a pattern of harming our country.
He allowed this to go forward. Since we don’t know all the real reasons behind this, it is safe to assume that it will be detrimental to us.
I think technology stole a march on the communist-in-chief and this is happening despite his efforts, not because of them.
One would have expected our .gov to get rid of regulations and environmental issues to help create more refineries here since the ME is so fragile, we didn't.
Finally, part of the push for the additional Keystone lines from Canadian was for being able to export those resources to higher bidders overseas.
Once oil prices go up again, I wouldn't be surprised if the debate of crude oil comes up again.