DEPA Chairman Hamm: Lift crude export ban or continue to put American energy renaissance at risk

For 40 years, lifting the US export ban was not seriously discussed until DEPA undertook a comprehensive education campaign to build the intellectual and public policy basis for lifting the ban. However, there is more work to be done.
 
OKLAHOMA CITY - May 14, 2015 - PRLog -- The Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA) is calling for industry-wide support of the “Energy Supply and Distribution Act of 2015,” introduced yesterday by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and 11 others. While this proposal represents a huge step forward in shaping public opinion for lifting the crude oil export ban, DEPA officials acknowledge there is more work to be done.

“The key to securing Congressional action to lift the export ban is maintaining pressure on the political process,” said DEPA Chairman Harold Hamm. “There are many competing agendas in Washington. The industry must maintain constant pressure in the system, positioning lifting the export ban as a key factor in America’s economic, foreign policy and national security strength.”

Lifting the export ban has economic and national security benefits for the United States, Hamm said.

Since October 2013, DEPA has led a highly-targeted campaign aimed at strategic Committee Chairs and congressional members on each of these public policy issues, said DEPA Executive Director Pete Regan. Since then, DEPA has been at the center of the battle to open free markets for the export of crude oil.

“DEPA’s recognition of this issue may have seemed ahead of its time, but nobody is questioning it now,” Regan said.

With DEPA’s support, exactly one year ago, April 1, 2014, US Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) introduced a bill to repeal the ban on exporting crude oil. Ten days later, current Senate Energy Committee Chair Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Ranking Member Murkowski sent a letter to the Department of Energy to study the implications of ending the ban on US crude oil exports.

The ultimate findings of that study, as published in the November 2014 IHS Energy report, Lifting the Crude Oil Export Ban Benefits US Consumers, were that lifting restrictions on crude oil exports would result in an increase of real household disposable income because of an investment-led expansion in economic activity and a lower unemployment rate.

“We used that study and others to focus on explaining how the export ban affects US independents,” Hamm said. “Primarily by putting our current energy renaissance at risk.”

He said the current lack of ability for US producers to compete on the global market “effectively eliminates American oil and gas development, drives oil and gas development overseas and eradicates high-paying, middle class US jobs.”

Additionally, by creating and perpetuating a short-supply cycle in America, the export ban drives gasoline prices up and hits US national security by ensuring OPEC dominance and the power of hostile nations, Hamm said.

“We expected this bipartisan legislation after the Congressional recess, and we are encouraging all of our industry partners to get behind the ‘Energy Supply and Distribution Act of 2015’ to continue the heavy lift of eradicating the US crude export ban,” Regan said.

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About the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance: DEPA is a coalition of US independent producers, oilfield service companies, and 13 state and national oil and natural gas trade associations made up of 10,000 members and more than 10 million American royalty owners. DEPA supports the bipartisan legislation to lift the harmful crude export ban, an enforcement tool remnant of President Nixon’s failed 1970s policy on price controls.

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