Kemp: Congressional Study Questions Embargo-Era Oil Policies

Influential And Impartial

GAO is one of three specialist non-partisan agencies which report to Congress and carry great weight with lawmakers and their staff as a source of impartial technical advice (the others are the Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget Office).

GAO's enormous influence and professional prestige is most likely the reason it was asked to do the study by Senator Lisa Murkowski, the top-ranked Republican on the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Murkowski, who represents the energy-producing state of Alaska, has been a strong supporter of lifting the export restrictions. She is already an influential leader on oil export policy and is in line to become the next committee chair if the Republican Party secures a Senate majority following mid-term elections next month.

Opposition to relaxing the ban has been led by some domestic refineries (which benefit from privileged access to cheap U.S. crude) and environmental groups (which worry about increasing emissions from U.S. oil and gas production).

But many lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have expressed unease in case lifting the ban results in an unpopular increase in gasoline and diesel prices for U.S. motorists.

In requesting the study, Murkowski has tried to give other legislators political cover to take a potentially controversial decision once the current election cycle is completed.

GAO's study is part of an emerging consensus that lifting the ban would not increase fuel bills and might actually reduce them if it results in a worldwide drop in crude oil prices.

None of the technical studies reviewed by GAO showed an end to the export ban raising fuel prices for U.S. motorists. Instead, each of the studies showed that ending the ban would reduce pump prices, though the projected fall was marginal and ranged from just 1.5 to 13 cents per gallon.


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