Calls to Drop 1970s-Era U.S. Oil-Export Ban Stirs Debate

摘要

Nearly four decades after the Arab oil embargo, political leaders are beginning to contemplate what was once unthinkable: lifting restrictions on the export of U.S. crude oil. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the Senate’s energy committee, and the American Petroleum Institute (API), conducted events on January 7 to push for an end to the export ban. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has suggested it’s time to revisit the policy amid forecasts the U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2015.