The House of Representatives has approved a bill (HR 702) to lift the 40-year U.S. export ban on crude oil exports, by a vote of 261-159.
“Pro-fossil fuel legislation tends to attract most of the Republican conference and some oil-and-gas-related Democratic members, and it usually comes around the 260 mark. So it’s not all that unusual to see a vote like this, but it is largely a partisan vote,” says Scott Segal, a partner in the Washington office of Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm heavily focused on the energy sector.
The ayes fall well short of what would be needed to override the veto President Obama has promised, should the bill reach his desk. Still, Jim Krane of Rice University’s Baker Institute says a compromise may be possible.
“The Obama Administration is definitely not immune to free trade arguments,” Krane says. “Oil is probably the most tradable commodity globally, and it’s kind of bizarre that we have a ban on it. You know, if there were some concessions in a bill, that maybe extended subsidies for renewables or some other sort of environmentally friendly concession, then maybe he’d go for it.”
Lawmakers who support the bill say the ongoing boom in oil and gas drilling has made the 1970s-era restrictions obsolete. Opponents say the bill would mainly benefit big oil companies. The measure now goes to the Senate.