Tell Obama to Protect the Ban on Crude Oil Exports
Since 1975, the United States has prohibited oil companies from exporting domestic crude oil overseas with a few small exceptions, capping the market on heavy crude oil and limiting transport to domestic lands and waters. But now, the American Petroleum Institute and their friends in Congress have begun lobbying to lift the ban.
Increased export of dirty, dangerous fossil fuels such as fracked oil and tar sands crude would have devastating impacts on our lands, rivers, oceans, public health and climate. Lifting the ban could result in an increase in carbon emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of 1,252 coal power plants — canceling out all our other efforts to fight climate change.
Don't let Big Oil destroy our climate and risk another spill disaster: Tell the Obama administration to protect the crude oil export ban.
Dear Secretary Moniz,
Since 1975, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act has prohibited oil companies from exporting domestic crude oil overseas. We need this ban on crude oil exports to limit our global fossil fuel consumption and the resulting climate impacts and prevent dangerous accidents that will inevitably result from the transport of these dirty fuels.
It’s a story that played out again with the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf four years ago, the Kalamazoo River tar sands pipeline spill in Michigan a few months later and most recently oil trains carrying dangerous Bakken shale exploding across the U.S. and Canada. No matter where it takes place, dirty fuel development leaves a legacy of destruction, threatening our waters, communities and climate.
Opening up our export markets to include U.S. crude on top of the continuously growing extraction, refining and export of various dirty fuels in this country would exponentially increase our exposure to another Exxon Valdez-type disaster and could release enough carbon pollution to cancel out efforts to fight climate disruption. It is time to halt any calls to lift the U.S. crude oil export ban, learn from our past and start embracing clean energy and climate action over dirty fossil fuels.
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