Category: Congress

Leaders in the US House of Representatives are demanding answers from BP PLC regarding the early August unplanned and still ongoing shutdown of a major processing unit at its 413,000-b/d refinery in Whiting, Ind. Reps. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and Fred Upton (R-Ind.) have sent a letter to BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley asking for information pertaining to the sudden closing of the refinery unit on Aug. 8, which has caused a sharp spike in gas prices throughout the upper Midwest, Walorski and Upton said in a joint release. “Some areas of the Midwest have seen prices rise over $1/gal over a 24-hr period, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable of our constituents and resulting in large unpredicted costs in getting goods to market across the region,” the House members wrote. In addition to noting the immediate hardship posed to constituents in their districts as a result of rising prices at […]

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Big voices in the oil industry and Congress now support a move that would have been unthinkable not long ago: opening the U.S. oil industry to exports. The U.S. has long pushed for liberalized trade, with U.S.-produced crude being the biggest exception since the shock of the 1973 Arab oil embargo led Congress to ban oil exports under nearly all circumstances. The only other U.S. products banned under the same regulations are a type of tree found in Western North Americacalled Western red cedar and live horses for slaughter shipped by sea. The House now looks likely to vote as early as September to lift the oil-export ban, with Senate action anticipated early next year, which would mark a milestone few saw coming. But while freely exporting U.S. oil may come as a shock to some Americans, it probably won’t cause much of an economic stir, especially with global […]

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U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) speaks at his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington July 9, 2015. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner told reporters on Wednesday he supports lifting a 40 year-old ban on crude oil exports, a move that could boost support for legislation in his chamber. Boehner said the ban was created during a time when oil markets were much different than they are now and that lifting the trade restriction could create 1 million jobs. A bill introduced by Representative Joe Barton this year has more than 100 co-sponsors. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner ; Editing by Lisa Lambert )

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A field of 14 storage tanks that each hold 510,000bbls of oil can be seen at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal in Valdez, Alaska on August 8, 2008. “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not an ATM,” Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee warned the Senate this week. “It is certainly not the petty cash drawer for Congress.” The senator from Alaska was criticizing a proposal to sell 101 million barrels of crude from the government’s stocks to offset a shortfall in funding in the highway trust fund. “Others are potentially looking to our Strategic Petroleum Reserve as nothing more than a piggybank,” Murkowski admonished her colleagues in a floor speech delivered on Wednesday. There is nothing new or particularly surprising about Congress raiding pots of apparently surplus assets to pay for short-term spending priorities. Between fiscal 1993 and fiscal 2005, almost $6 billion worth of […]

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Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., works to steer energy policy to reflect shale boom, though industry groups say the efforts fall far short of what’s needed. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) WASHINGTON, July 23 (UPI) — The American Petroleum Institute said there is still more work to do as U.S. lawmakers work to craft legislation that matches the shale energy landscape. "The last major energy legislation was crafted in 2007, and important changes are needed to unlock the full economic and security benefits made possible by America’s energy revolution," API Executive Vice President Louis Finkel said in a statement. A House energy subcommittee unanimously passed a measure to modernize U.S. energy infrastructure and "bolster America’s energy security and diplomacy." Lawmakers and industry supporters are pressing for new policies to reflect the gains in U.S. oil and natural gas production, drawn largely from shale basins in states like Texas and North Dakota. […]

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On the other side is Consumers and Refiners United for Domestic Energy, which spent $180,000 on lobbying through the first half of this year to retain the ban. It includes PBF and Delta Air Lines Inc. unit Monroe Energy LLC. Exact amounts being spent on the export ban aren’t available because registrants disclose total expenditures on all issues in a single form. ConocoPhillips has the most extensive effort on the ban, according to the filings. It’s hired three firms to represent it, in addition to five lobbyists on its own staff. Other big oil producers, including Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp., support ending the export limits. All three have their own lobbying teams as well as outside firms to help on the issue. While there is some congressional support for lifting the restrictions, there probably isn’t enough backing to end them before the 2016 elections, […]

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