Advocates of oil exports turn up pressure
Houston congressman among those targeted as a vote nears in House on ending 40-year-old trade ban
WASHINGTON — Oil producers eager to export crude and refiners fighting to stop them are battling to win over lawmakers who could play a decisive role in the trade dispute.
Two oil industry groups launched separate TV and digital ads touting exports, including a commercial targeting Houston Democratic Rep. Gene Green and three other members of the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, which is set to vote on the issue Thursday.
Meanwhile, a group of refiners released polling data suggesting lawmakers voting to allow widespread oil exports could see a backlash at the ballot box.
The political moves come as the House Energy and Power Subcommittee takes up legislation sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, to lift the 40-yearold ban on oil exports. The panel is expected to approve the bill. The legislation still faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill.
The longstanding trade restrictions do not apply to gasoline and other refined petroleum products but bar the foreign sale of most unprocessed U.S. crude. There are exceptions for some supplies from California and Alaska, as well as shipments to Canada.
Oil producers want Congress and the Obama administration to lift the ban entirely. But some refiners are campaigning to keep the ban intact, arguing their facilities and workers could suffer if foreign competitors — who do not have to abide by U.S. maritime shipping restrictions and wage laws — are able to buy cargoes of American crude for less than they can.
Green sits squarely in the middle of the debate, by virtue of a congressional district that hugs the Houston Ship Channel, with constituents representing both oil production and refining interests. He has been wary of a wholesale lifting of the crude export ban.
“My main priority is to ensure that the upstream producers, midstream transporters and downstream refinery jobs in our district are protected,” Green said in a statement Wednesday. “Anything that passes through the committee should put American workers first.”
Cable television and online ads launched Wednesday by Producers for American Crude Oil Exports target Green and three other Democrats on the Energy and Power Subcommittee: Reps. Dave Loebsack of Iowa, Eliot Engel of New York and Bobby Rush of Illinois. All are eyed by export advocates as potential “aye” votes on the bill.
The ads, running online Wednesday and beginning on cable television around four cities on Thursday, peg the debate to the nuclear agreement with Iran, which could allow the country to sell 700,000 barrels of crude to foreign buyers daily. The issue also is highlighted in separate ads from the American Petroleum Institute set to begin this week in a dozen states and the District of Columbia.
Some analysts say if OPEC member nations don’t cut back their own production to offset the new Iranian supplies, that could further drive down world crude prices.
The nuclear deal and eased sanctions “will help Iran’s economy and create Iranian jobs,” says the 30-second PACE spots. “Ironically, while the United States will allow Iran to export more oil, a ban on oil exports exists here at home.”
Refiners eager to preserve the status quo are working to make the point that any vote for exports is a political risk.
Public opinion surveys commissioned for Consumers and Refiners United for Domestic Energy found a plurality of voters — nearly 50 percent — would oppose a law allowing U.S. crude to be exported to other countries. By a wider margin, likely voters said they were less likely to re-elect a legislator who voted for a law allowing exports.
The surveys were done in Illinois and Pennsylvania, home to two vulnerable Republican senators — Mark Kirk and Pat Toomey — trying to hold on to their seats in elections next year.