Introduced to help enforce price controls in the fuel-hungry 1970s, America's ban on crude-oil exports was all but forgotten when the economy boomed and imports soared.
Now it is in the news again. It keeps American crude, measured by the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, around $10 below the world price (see chart).
Cash-strapped oilmen would like to sell their product abroad — just like any other industry — and are lobbying to lift the ban. A study by IHS, a consultancy, says that free trade in crude would boost output, investment, jobs, pay, profits and tax revenues — and GDP by $86 billion.
It would not raise petrol prices: these are set in the (freely traded) world market. Most likely they would fall a bit.
But politicians are fearful. Sooner or later, the petrol price will go up again — and anyone who voted to allow precious hydrocarbons to be sold to foreigners will be in the firing line.
Supporters of the ban argue that it not only keeps prices low. It protects jobs, and also helps national security, by promoting self-sufficiency.
Some of these arguments are contradictory. At a Senate hearing last week Jeffrey Warmann of Monroe Energy, speaking on behalf of a lobby group called the CRUDE Coalition, argued that the export ban kept the petrol price low.
He also said exports would mean "petroleum products refined in Europe but derived from American crude returning to our shores" — but that would happen only if those products were competitive, and consumers wanted them.
Introduced to help enforce price controls in the fuel-hungry 1970s, America's ban on crude-oil exports was all but forgotten when the economy boomed and imports soared.
Now it is in the news again. It keeps American crude, measured by the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, around $10 below the world price (see chart).
Cash-strapped oilmen would like to sell their product abroad — just like any other industry — and are lobbying to lift the ban. A study by IHS, a consultancy, says that free trade in crude would boost output, investment, jobs, pay, profits and tax revenues — and GDP by $86 billion.
It would not raise petrol prices: these are set in the (freely traded) world market. Most likely they would fall a bit.
But politicians are fearful. Sooner or later, the petrol price will go up again — and anyone who voted to allow precious hydrocarbons to be sold to foreigners will be in the firing line.
Supporters of the ban argue that it not only keeps prices low. It protects jobs, and also helps national security, by promoting self-sufficiency.
Some of these arguments are contradictory. At a Senate hearing last week Jeffrey Warmann of Monroe Energy, speaking on behalf of a lobby group called the CRUDE Coalition, argued that the export ban kept the petrol price low.
He also said exports would mean "petroleum products refined in Europe but derived from American crude returning to our shores" — but that would happen only if those products were competitive, and consumers wanted them.
