In the decades after the Arab oil embargo, the U.S. restricted energy exports to promote self sufficiency as a matter of national security. Now Russia’s annexation of Crimea and massing of troops on the Ukrainian border is fueling a push in Congress to remove those limits to punish President Vladimir Putin . “In the 70s, we argued that for the sake of national security we have to prohibit exports,” Michael Webber , deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, said in an interview. “Now we argue that for the sake of national security we have to allow exports. Our mind has flipped in 40 years.” Three congressional committees are holding hearings this week on whether the U.S. should sell more of its growing oil and gas resources overseas, in part to lessen European dependence on Russian oil and gas. Europe imports about 30 […]