Ed Markey — Big Oil Making Big Push to Export US Oil Abroad

mr. president there is a proposal that is going to be made before the United States House of Representatives and before the Senate that proposal will lift the ban on the exportation of American oil oil that's drilled for here in the United States the oil industry wants to have this ban lifted now you have to go back in history 40 years 1975 in order to find why that ban on imported oil is on the books in 1975 we were at the height of the first oil embargo from OPEC we were importing thirty to thirty-five percent of the oil which we consumed in the United States so a band was put on place for us to export our own oil if we were importing thirty to thirty-five percent of the oil that we were consuming in America put us at a big disadvantage if we took that approach to our own oil today the United States imports twenty-five to thirty percent of all the oil which we consume today so Mark Twain used to say that history doesn't repeat itself but it does tend to rhyme so today is a lot like 1975 in terms of the amount of oil that we import into our country we right now import five million barrels of oil a day we import oil from Iraq we import oil from Venezuela we import oil from the Persian Gulf in order to fuel our economy now oil industry says let's start selling the oil we have and drill for in the United States out on the open market now why does the oil industry want to do that because when oil is drilled for in the United States the price that is set is set in Oklahoma Cushing Oklahoma that's where the price is set in on average that price is three to six dollars less expensive per barrel than the oil that is on the open market that is called the brent crude price but it's the world price that's not a price I prices three to six dollars less the oil industry in America wants to get our oil out onto the open market so they can sell it to other countries what countries well first in line will be China after that most likely other Asian Nations that makes a lot of sense but oil companies doesn't make any sense for American consumers by keeping the ban in place barclays bank estimated that all that oil here put pressure on prices and lowered prices for consumers by 11 billion dollars last year and you can see it when you look at the price at the pump when you go up go in to fill up this year barclays bank estimates that there will be a 10 billion dollar reduction in costs for consumers you can see it at the pump you can see the price coming down the pressure works for consumers oil industry doesn't like that they want to get that oil out of America they want to get a higher price on the global market now national security does it really make any sense for the United States to be sending young men and women over to the Middle East in uniform into that highly unstable part of our planet in order to ensure that that stability leads to huge ships with oil in it coming from the Middle East into America while simultaneously having the oil industry saying let's export our own oil that we already have makes no sense as long as we are exporting young men and women over to the Middle East to fight to protect ourselves we should not be exporting our own oil domestically it makes no sense what so ever and the Department of Energy our own Department of Energy says that our production in America is going to peak in the year twenty twenty peak and then begin to decline for the next 20 years so we import 5 million barrels a day our oil production will peak in the year 2020 and then start to decline and the oil industry wants to start exporting our own oil many of the advocates for that say well you wouldn't have a ban on any other product being exported from the United States probably right we don't have a ban on the export of widgets watches but on the other hand we don't fight was of a widgets we don't fight was over watches oil that's different oil has been at the center for 50 years of this powerful geopolitical battle that the United States has been drawn into over in the Middle East and let's not kid ourselves we're living it every day looking at the lead stories on every television network in our country every day in terms of what we lose well the domestic refining industry is totally opposed to this that is the oil refining industry of the United States totally opposed to exploitation why because they are investing in the construction of new refineries here to refine American oil here in refineries that are constructed and end up employing hundreds of thousands of people within our own country the refining industry opposes it it would be a nine billion dollar loss and a reduction by 1.6 billion 1.6 million rather of the barrels of oil per day that could be refined in the United States the shipbuilding industry is opposed to it we're seeing a forty percent increase in the amount of shipbuilding in America because here's what's happening the oil is produced in the oil patches it's put on ships and it sent up to Pennsylvania sent up to New Jersey sent up to other parts in America and you need ships to do that and then that oil gets refined up in Pennsylvania gets refined up in other parts of the country that would end this incredible ship building boom which we have seen and where will these exports go you know win hunt like Russia we're not like Saudi Arabia we don't have state-run oil companies we're a capitalist capitalist go for the highest price the matter where it is you put the oil out on the open seas our companies will head towards the highest price who's going to pay the highest price China is going to pay the highest price other countries that are wealthy are going to pay the highest price we can't pretend that it's going to go to where the geopolitical needs of the Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense might wanted to go that's not how capitalism works you go towards the highest price that's the fiduciary responsibility that you have as a CEO of a company that doesn't get mixed up with in our society the hand on the tiller of those ships is heading towards the highest so who benefits well the oil companies will benefit there are estimates that by 2025 they'll be making an extra 30 billion dollars a year in profits per year makes sense for the old companies who are the losses well our consumers are going to be big losers I national security big loser we're exporting our strength our oil even as we need five million extra barrels a day our domestic refiners big losers us shipbuilding industry big losers and our environment big loser can you imagine the Pope is arriving next week and he's going to talk about the role that human beings are playing in the dangerous warming of our planet what the oil industry wants us to do is to continue to engage in expanded fracking of oil on our own soil even though we haven't fully figured out how to contain the methane that comes out of that fracking and then put it on ships and send it around the world but we are the benefits for the American people our environment takes all the risks and the oil just goes out onto the open seas with the benefit to the oil companies makes no sense at all and within 10 years they're making an extra 30 billion dollars every single year from that additional profit that they get by selling it overseas rather than keeping it here in keeping the pressure on lowering the price for consumers here in our country and many times you hear them saying we really should be able to drill off the coastline of the United States all the way up to me down to Florida from Sandy go up to the top of Alaska right off the coastline what about the fishing industry could endanger it what about tourism on those beaches if doesn't spill could endanger it but they say well we must do it in order to ensure that we have the oil that we need here in the United States well you can't have it both ways you can't say we have enough oil that we can export it out of our country in say simultaneously but we must drill off of our coastlines in dangerous conditions because we don't need the oil because we can export it can't have it both ways you no one's allowed to do that so there's a pretty high contradiction coefficient in the argument made by the oil industry and we need to have this debate the American people must know that they are going to run the risk of being tipped upside down at gasoline stations all across the country and having money shaken out of their pockets as they fill up their tank because the oldest tree oil industry just wants more and so national security let us know when we have produced the extra five million barrels a day here let us know when they have the evidence to prove that the Department of Energy is wrong and our production doesn't start to go down after 2020 let us know when they've invested in the safeguards that ensures that methane does not come up from the frack wells let us know when we put as a priority those American young men and women that were sending over there into the Middle East it makes no sense it's a bad policy they had it right back in 1975 we're still importing just about the same amount of oil as we were back and we want it we don't want to invoke the first law of holes which is when you in one stop digging we want to make sure that we abide by that rule that we guarantee that we start to come out of that hole that we use American oil here first before we sell it overseas and hurt consumers the environment financial security this is the beginning of a very important debate in our country and and I'm looking forward to it I think the American people are going to rise up and realize that this is very dangerous for them on so many different levels that it will be rejected on the floor of the Senate before this entire process has ended I yield back the balance of my time