On the recordJuly 7, 2015
As I mentioned, I offer this amendment to require companies to follow the law if they want to export crude oil from the United States. I want to make it clear. This amendment is not about whether we should lift the crude oil export ban altogether. That is a debate for a different time and a different bill. This is about those narrow cases where companies are currently able to export crude oil in limited quantities but are also choosing not to follow the rules. Last summer, the Commerce Department ruled that two companies could export very light crude oil, called condensate, after it had been lightly processed. That decision meant that those companies would not need to obtain a license to export crude oil even though licenses are required for all other crude oil exports. Because of that ruling, which I believe was inappropriate, another company decided that they, too, would begin exporting their own light crude oil without even asking the Commerce Department for a decision first, let alone try to get a license. Since then, exports have skyrocketed. From January 2010 until June 2014, when the Commerce Department made that ruling, we exported about 97,000 barrels of crude oil a day, mostly to Canada. Since that day in June of 2014, our oil exports have quadrupled to an average of over 400,000 barrels a day, hitting all-time record levels, with more and more of that crude oil going to Europe and to Asia.…
