Exxon Mobil says the U.S. should lift its decades-long restriction on exporting crude oi l. ”We are not dealing with an era of scarcity, we are dealing with a situation of abundance,” Ken Cohen, Exxon’s vice president of public and government affairs, told the Wall Street Journal. Here’s what’s behind the ban – and the energy industry’s effort to reverse it: Why can’t Pumped-in-the-USA crude be exported? In 1973, some members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stopped selling crude to the U.S. in retaliation for its support of Israel in a war with Egypt and Syria. The oil embargo ,which sent crude prices soaring, scared the pants off U.S. policymakers. In response, Congress made it illegal to export U.S. oil without a license , as part of an effort to bolster conservation and cut oil imports. Later, exceptions to […]