Joe Barton: “I thank Chairman Upton for yielding me the time. I want to commend him for his leadership on this initiative and for…”

“I thank Chairman Upton for yielding me the time. I want to commend him for his leadership on this initiative and for getting it to the floor. This has been a long process, and the gentleman is to be commended for going through the regular order of the subcommittee, of the full committee, and now to floor consideration. I support H.R. 8, as reported out of committee and as amended in the manager's amendment that the gentleman presented to the Rules Committee. I have requested--and I think it will be made in order--an amendment to that bill to include a provision that we passed as a stand-alone bill several months ago, H.R. 702, which would repeal the current ban on crude oil exports. My amendment, if made in order by the Rules Committee--and I hope that it will be--takes what the floor passed with amendments--and we had a number of Republican and Democrat amendments that were added dealing with terrorism, national security, and things of this sort. I am asking that the Rules Committee make in order H.R. 702, as amended, and put it on the floor tomorrow as an amendment. Mr. Chairman, in the United States, we currently produce a little over 9 million barrels of oil per day. That makes us number 3 in the world in terms of daily crude oil production, but we are not allowed to export any of that crude oil. We can export refined products and we do export up to 3 or 4 million barrels per day of refined products, but we cannot export crude oil.…”