It turns out that President Obama will let Iran increase its crude oil exports but not the U.S.—at least not yet.
The president’s nuclear agreement with Iran will remove economic sanctions and allow the country to expand its crude oil exports.
Before the U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions on Iran in 2012, the country exported about 2.6 million barrels of crude oil a day. After sanctions that figure dropped to about 1.4 million barrels a day, but energy analysts expect an Iran free of sanctions would eventually add another million barrels a day to its total.
But even as Obama makes his case for the nuclear agreement, which would allow Iran to benefit economically from expanded crude oil exports, he hesitates giving the U.S. economy the same stimulus.
Obama and the White House have expressed concerns that lifting the U.S. ban completely would raise gasoline prices—although many economists and the Government Accountability Office dispute that claim.
Really? So why isn’t he concerned that would happen by letting Iran expand exports?
The reason the U.S. is in this predicament is that in the wake of long lines at gasoline stations in the 1970s, Congress passed legislation prohibiting the export of crude oil. That export ban has been in effect for 40 years, and it is time to end it. The world isn’t experiencing a shortage of oil but a surplus. And U.S. producers need a global market for it.
The good news is some steps have been taken. The Obama administration has permitted the export of condensate, an ultra-light crude that takes little processing, and has approved limited crude oil exports to Mexico.
In addition, Senate Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pushed through legislation at the end of July that would end the ban. The bill still has a big hill to climb to become law, but it’s a start.
Would Obama sign it? Who knows, but the president who sees no problem letting Iran expand its exports should see no problem in letting his own country do the same.