Republicans can rest easy — Sen. Ted Cruz is no longer pushing for a vote on his amendment to end the crude oil export ban.
The Texas Republican had previously said he filed the measure on a bill authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline because he thought ending the 40-year-old ban was “good policy.” Some of his GOP colleagues feel the same, and many more likely do but don’t yet feel comfortable saying so.
“After long conversations with my friends and colleagues, Senator [Lisa] Murkowski [R-Alaska] and Senator [John] Hoeven [R-N.D.], we have agreed that we are going to have committee hearings in the coming months focusing on both of those issues, laying out the facts and the data to make clear that these are unambiguously good if you want jobs and economic growth,” Cruz said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
The issue is gas pump politics. Lawmakers who might support removing the trade barriers are wary of criticism from constituents who think doing so would increase gas prices. A majority of Americans believe — and some Democrats and refineries argue — sending exports abroad would raise pump prices.
Republicans and the oil industry were wary of taking a vote on the Cruz amendment because they didn’t think the issue had simmered enough in the public sphere. The oil industry has said it needs to do a better job on educating people.
A January poll of 1,101 likely 2016 election voters by left-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress found 71 percent of respondents — including 69 percent of Republicans — thought ending the oil export ban “would only increase gas prices here at home while making oil companies richer.”
Despite the public’s belief that exporting oil would raise gas prices, some early federal studies have shown exports might lower prices slightly. The Congressional Budget Office in December, for example, said a complete repeal of the export ban would yield savings of between 5 and 10 cents per gallon.
Export proponents argue loosening restrictions would relieve refineries of light sweet crude produced in shale energy regions, as U.S. refineries were built to process heavy sour crude. Refineries, which have benefited from the 1975 export law because refined products such as gasoline don’t face the same restrictions, have resisted changes and say they can handle light sweet crude.
Cruz said he will offer an amendment to expedite exports of liquefied natural gas. His amendment differs from a bipartisan measure that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will consider during a Thursday hearing.
