In Freight News 21/04/2015
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a key congressional Republican, plans to introduce legislation this year to repeal restrictions on US crude exports, but is also pressuring the Obama administration for exemptions to the current export regime which would allow export to global allies.
“If last year was the year of the report, this should be the year of legislation,” Murkowski said Monday at the annual IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. “So I am announcing today — right here, right now — that I plan to introduce a bill that fully repeals our nation’s outdated export ban, while still preserving the emergency authority of the president.”
Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said it was unclear if the bill would be part of a broader energy policy bill to be introduced later this year or part of a separate bill.
Murkowski said she planned to push for exemptions to current crude restrictions in the near term, such as allowing crude exports to NATO countries or Asian trading partners, such as Japan, South Korea and India.
The majority of crude exports are banned under a roughly 40-year-old policy. But that policy has become subject to a fierce lobbying campaign by producers who want all restrictions lifted and a group of independent refiners who want the policy kept in place.
Murkowski indicated that she was open to possible changes to the Jones Act, which requires ships moving cargo between US ports to be US built and owned, among other requirements.
“I don’t think we should get all agitated and upset when there’s an effort to look at the Jones Act,” Murkowski said. “We’re looking at a lot of our energy policies right now.”
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the main lobbying group for US refiners, has said it may support a change to export policy if a weakening of the Jones Act and the Renewable Fuel Standard was also considered.
Murkowski, however, said it was “too early” to consider such a proposal.
The Obama administration is not expected to move on crude policy in the near term and congressional leaders, including top House Republicans, have yet to pledge support for a change to current export restrictions.
Murkowski called current export restrictions “a sanctions regime against ourselves.”
Texas Republican Congressmen Joe Barton and Ted Poe both introduced bills earlier this year to allow all US crude exports, but Republican House leaders have yet to support the bills and the bills have yet to be voted out of committee.
