Well, the effort below was unsuccessful, much to the detriment of our country's long term health and security. We
have to vote those congressional idiots out and reimplement EPCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We continue
to hear ‘noise’ about authorship of a bill to eliminate the ban on exporting US
produced crude oil. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) was passed
for the protection of our country, maybe we should say now – for our national
security. Some of our Senators and Representatives
weren’t around when we had the petroleum shock in the ‘70’s, the genesis of EPCA,
but all of the senior leadership in both house and both parties were. The EPCA was
signed by President Ford in December, 1975 after the 1973 Arab oil embargo
shook the U.S. with high crude oil prices and he and congress saw how our
national security and our economy was threatened by our dependence on that foreign
oil. EPCA requires the President to ban crude oil exports, but allows for some exceptions.
The point of EPCA, even with the exemptions, is to insulate the U.S. from
volatile and sometimes unpredictable global crude markets, reduce energy
consumption and to greatly limit the impact of any future oil embargos by
foreign oil producing countries, particularly those who aren’t our ‘friends’. Recently,
crude oil production in the US has increased, but let us look at some
numbers. In 1977 we imported about 6,615,000
barrels of crude oil/day (5,632,000 from OPEC).
That number rose to about 10,126,000 barrels of crude oil/day (4,816,000
from OPEC) in 2005 and has now fallen to about 7,337,000 barrels of crude
oil/day (2,995,000 from OPEC) in 2014. US Crude oil exports peaked at 104,000,000
barrels in 1980, but have since fallen to 43,800,000 barrels in 2013.
I now understand
that proponents of eliminating EPCA export ban say that in reality, the export
ban did not help accomplish either of these objectives and that EPCA has now
become more of a hindrance than a help. I disagree.
Proponents of EPCA’s
crude ban cite the following key elements of the
U.S. oil export equation:
exporting U.S. crude oil has become economically
attractive to the energy industry (yes they will make a lot of money selling
our natural resources);
the United States has become one of the world's
largest gross exporters of refined oil products, such as gasoline and diesel;
Restrictions on crude oil
exports are beginning
to undermine the efficiency of the U.S. oil economy due to the crude oil mix:
i.e. light vs. heavy, etc. and the types crude US refinery’s are designed to
process doesn’t fit this mix; and,
Liberalizing the crude oil exports would advance
U.S. foreign policy by demonstrating the US’s commitment to free and fair trade
and avoid putting the US at odds with allies on this sensitive economic and
political issue.
Proponents of
keeping EPCA in place argue that it increases the long term national security of
the US by slowing the depletion of U.S. oil fields and the continued reduction
of, and reliance on, crude imports. And, US refineries can adapt, or at worse, be
modified to accept any crude once a definitive strategy is implemented. If we
determined to produce and sell more crude, then build plants to convert it into
finished products (motor fuel, chemicals, etc.) as we do now, and then export
and sell the finished products at a much higher ‘value added’ than just passing
crude through the system for direct sale for the producers. Refining more crude
will increase capital
spending, add jobs directly and through strengthening local support businesses.
Crude oil imports
actually
exceeded US domestic production from 1994 to 2013, and in several years twice
as much crude oil was imported than produced.
Recent imports vs. current consumption are down to about 60% vs.
historical highs above 75%, which is a credible reduction, but still not enough. I
don’t believe helping our ‘allies’ buy our
oil at the expense of the US using our own domestic production and reducing
imports, or that helping the petroleum producers make more money on their crude
oil, outweigh the strategic security of being independent of crude oil imports,
particularly from the volatile OPEC and Middle East countries. Possibly, once
imports are down to less than
10% of consumption, we could look at increasing exports, but selling out our
long term security for short terms gains by petroleum producers by just passing
crude through the system, using what is truly a “National Natural Resource”
seems very short sighted, akin to ‘eating to goose that laid the golden eggs”.
I believe this not a “Free Trade” issue, it
is a long term economic and National Security Issue for the US, and is just another 'instant gratification' efforts of congress
to accept lobbyist money to swell their coffers, while causing the US to suffer in the long term!
Build/modify plants to use our crude and create
'value added products' that we can then export and that will sell at much higher prices than the crude, and not just
'pass the crude through', 'as is', with no value added! Get the imports down to less that 10% of total usage, then we'll
talk about EPCA!!!!!!!!!!!!
D. Clifton Riley
P.E.
Many of the numbers and ‘facts’ noted are
taken from numerous sources such as EIA, International Business Times, Council
on Foreign Relations, etc.
