Ed Markey: “what we are about to do is have a discussion about whether the United States of America should start exporting our…”

“what we are about to do is have a discussion about whether the United States of America should start exporting our oil--exporting our oil. The United States right now, along with China, is the largest importer of oil in the world. We are not exactly at but very near to the level of imports of oil in our country that we were back in 1975 when we put a ban on the exportation of oil in our country. Why is that important? It is important for a lot of reasons. No. 1, if we begin to export our oil in the United States, a new Barclays report found that the U.S. consumer last year saved $11.4 billion at the pump because of the lowest U.S. crude prices in a long time, and we would potentially save upwards of $10 billion in prices for consumers at the pump in the United States of America. We understand the oil industry. Here is what happens. The world price is set. It is called the Brent price. The Brent price is the world price of oil. That price is traditionally higher, much higher than the price of crude oil in the United States that is produced in the United States. That is West Texas intermediate. That is a price set in Cushing, OK. If you are an oil company, you want to get our U.S. crude out on the world market because they will then be able to sell it for a much higher price. What is wrong with that?…”