MaritimeFedWatch

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, signed into law by the President on December 18, 2015, generally lifted restrictions on the export of crude oil from the United States. Such exports, although subject to significant exceptions, had been generally prohibited since the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975.  

On October 9, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to accelerate increased funding for the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP). MSP provides financial support to 60 particularly militarily useful U.S.-flag vessels engaged in the foreign trade. The context was the consideration by the House of Representatives of H.R. 702, a bill authorizing unrestricted U.S. crude oil exports.

Although there have been numerous recent studies on the potential economic impact of U.S. crude oil exports, it was not until recently that the U.S. Government issued its own study directly on those effects. On September 1, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued “Effects of Removing Restrictions on U.S. Crude Oil Exports,” which concluded (with a number of caveats and assumptions) that removal of remaining U.S. crude oil export restrictions would either leave U.S. gasoline prices unchanged or slightly reduced.