The House is set to vote on lifting a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports next week, after scrapping a tentative plan to do so before the end of September.
A spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed the plan in a two-word email response to the Washington Examiner: “next week.”
The House Rules Committee on Monday began collecting amendments to the bill, which advanced out of the Energy and Commerce Committee in September. The rule would lift the 1970s ban on exporting crude oil from the U.S. in an effort to boost job development and investment in America’s oil and gas infrastructure.
As a result of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the U.S. has become the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. The bill, introduced by former energy Chairman Joe Barton of Texas, removes the federal restrictions put in place after the Arab oil embargo.
“It’s time that Congress considers revising the ban on crude oil exports,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan upon backing the measure this summer. “Oil exports can be a win for the American people and a win for our allies.”
On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office, the federal nonpartisan research arm, issued a study showing the ban has led to more than $1 trillion in lost profits for U.S. producers over the past four decades.
The report also said that the bill “would reduce net direct spending by $1.4 billion over the 2016-2025 period by increasing offsetting receipts from federal oil and gas leases.”
Oil producers quickly seized on the study to demonstrate that lifting the ban would expand the economy, while raising revenue for the government. At the same time, critics of the bill played up the fact that removing the ban would raise gasoline prices and harm the economy. Many Democrats oppose the measure based on the fear it would raise fuel costs for consumers.
The Crude Coalition, a group of East Coast refiners fighting the legislation, touted the budget office’s findings that repealing the ban would raise the cost of oil by $2.50 at the well.
The coalition says that would translate into higher gasoline prices.
“Higher crude prices mean higher prices at the pump,” according to a statement from the group. “The price of crude oil is the largest component in the price of gasoline.”
The report comes after a study by the Energy Information Administration earlier this summer said the price of gasoline would drop as a result of repealing the ban, which proponents have used to persuade critics to support the legislation.
The Senate is pushing forward with its own bill, which was passed out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in July along a strict party-line vote. But that’s not the only bill out there. The Senate Banking Committee is taking up a bill introduced by Democrat Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, which could bring more support from the minority party.
The committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday, moving two bills to the Senate floor for consideration. It is not known when the bill will come up for a vote. Senate leadership has been coy on the legislation, as many analysts and observers say it faces an uphill battle there.
There is also an issue of priorities, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is preparing to go after President Obama’s climate change agenda by passing a resolution opposing the Clean Power Plan.
The plan is the centerpiece of Obama’s climate agenda and a top Republican target. McConnell, who hails from the coal state of Kentucky, says the rules will close power plants and lead to higher energy prices and a less reliable grid.
