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WAOI:End of Crude Oil Export Ban Seen as Boost to Texas
SAN ANTONIO, Texas,
December 17, 2015
Tags:
Energy and Environment
Congress has agreed up drop the crude oil export ban, but experts say we should not expect the price at the pump to go down any further.
"Right now, there is such an oversupply worldwide, I don’t think there is going to be a demand for U.S. oil exports," Bud Weinstein at SMU's Maguire Energy Institute tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. Long term, what it does, he thinks is cement the stability in the market.E "The Middle east doesn't matter," he explains. "In the past, there was a huge spike in oil prices every time there was a dust up. That's just not the case anymore." House Republicans announced a deal this week on a trillion-dollar, year-end tax and spending package that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, championed the end of the crude oil ban, saying it increase America's political clout. "Look what control Russian has over Ukraine and a lot of the western European countries," he says. "This will allow us to have an influence over foreign policy." He says the four decade old ban handcuffed our political influence. The deal includes a five year extension of solar and wind power tax credits, which Weinstein says is a mistake. "We've been subsidizing solar to the tune of $200 billion and we've been subsidizing wind to the tune of $150 billion, and I think it's time to put those technologies to the market test." |