A group of U.S. senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Wednesday to end the 40-year-old self-imposed ban on U.S.crudeoil exports.
Lisa Murkowski, the chairwoman of theSenate Committee on Energy and Resources, joined forces with Democrat SenatorHeidi Heitkampand 11 others to introduce thebill.
"This bipartisan legislation would modernize federal energy policy by ending the outdated ban oncrudeoil exports," the committee said in a statement on its website.
"America’s energy landscape has changed dramatically since the export ban was put in place in the 1970s,” Murkowskisaid in the statement."We have moved from energy scarcity to energy abundance. Unfortunately, our energy policies have not kept pace.”
The ban on U.S. oil exports beganafterthe Arab oil embargo in 1973 revealed the U.S.'s dependency on foreign oil resources.
Haitkamp calledthe ban oncrudeoil exports as "nonsensical" and"outdatedas the typewriters on which the policy was written."
Since itsshale oil boom in 2008, the U.S. has increased its domestic oil production rapidly, from around 5 million barrels a day in 2009to more than 8million barrels per day in 2014.
The U.S.'s Energy Information Administration projects the country'scrudeoil production to rise from an average of 9.3 million barrels a dayin 2015,to reach a record 10.6 million barrels per day in 2020.
The world's biggest economy is thethird largest oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
(Anadolu Agency)
