OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Addaptation to Changing Crude Oil Markets

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 9, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Oil and Gas Trade

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my friend from Texas for yielding, but also for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor and building a strong bipartisan coalition to finally lift the ban on oil exports.

Mr. Chairman, this is a relic of the 1970s that doesn't fit with today's world economy, but it also doesn't fit with the revolution that has happened in American energy because of American technology.

We have an abundance of natural resources now and an abundance of oil. We literally could be the Saudi Arabia of energy. Yet, there is a law that is on the books that bans the ability of the United States to export its own oil. There is no other nation in the world that has that limitation on their ability to sell that natural resource.

Mr. Chairman, at a time when the President is actually supporting this horrible deal with Iran that, among other things, allows Iran to export their oil to the world markets, the President at the same time is saying he opposes this bill that allows America to export its oil.

What is at stake, Mr. Chairman? What is at stake under this bill, if this bill passes, is it will create over 800,000 American jobs, good American jobs, here at home.

If this bill passes, Mr. Chairman, we can actually create over $800 million to reduce the deficit, deficit reduction, just by passing this bill.

What is also at stake, Mr. Chairman, if we pass this bill? We can help our allies around the world who don't want to have to get their oil from countries like Russia, where Vladimir Putin is using energy as a weapon against our friends. They can now get that energy from us.

Creating American jobs along the way, everything about this says yes. It is time to lift this relic of the 1970s. Let's finally allow American oil to be exported on world markets when we have such an abundance and we have the ability to create hundreds of thousands of new American jobs along the way.

I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward