Senator Points to Crude Oil Export Precedents

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, released on March 3, 2014 a list of instances in which the President exercised his authority to permit crude oil exports since the overall ban on crude oil exports was enacted in 1975. Those permissions are for crude oil exports to Canada (1985, 1988), crude oil from Alaska's Cook Inlet (1995), California heavy crude oil (1992), and crude oil transported from the Alaska North Slope on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (1996). Sen. Murkowski and certain other legislators have been promoting more general crude oil exports from the United States.