White House would oppose crude export bill: Update
The White House declared its opposition to lifting the crude ban for the first time today, dealing a major setback to supporters who hoped Obama would support the bill. The legislation would struggle to win a two-thirds majority in Congress needed to override a potential presidential veto.
In a speech today in Houston, US House majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said the bill to lift the crude export restrictions will be headed to the House floor during the last week of September. Republicans expect they can easily pass the bill in the House with some Democratic support.
"If there was ever a time to lift the oil export ban, it is now," McCarthy said. The House plans to vote on the crude export bill after it moves out of the House Energy and Commerce committee, which is voting on the measure on 17 September.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee has already approved a separate bill that would allow crude exports, but the bill needs to win the support of at least six Democrats to pass a 60-vote threshold to avoid a potential filibuster.
The administration's position on crude exports is a "policy decision that is made over at the Commerce Department," which has limited authority to allow some crude exports that are in the "national interest," the White House said. The agency did not respond to requests for comment.
The White House did not explicitly say it opposed lifting crude export restrictions but instead said it opposed bills "like the one that has been put forward by Republicans." Top Democrats in the Senate have said they might support lifting export restrictions if the legislation was tied to an extension of renewable tax credits and the phase-out of tax subsidies for oil producers, a remote possibility in the Republican-controlled Congress.
"You know the chance of that happening? I wish there was a negative zero," senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) said today at an event hosted by the National Journal. The coal industry would not allow an extension of those tax credits without a "huge fight," he said.
Representative Fred Upton (R-Michigan), the House Energy and Commerce committee chairman, criticized the White House opposition.
"I am disappointed the White House would voice opposition to lifting the crude oil ban when a good number of prominent studies have indicated that the price at the American pump would actually go down by lifting the ban," Upton said. "Many are asking why the Iranians are now allowed to export crude and only the Americans are denied."
The exports bill already has the support of Democratic senators Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota) and Joe Manchin (West Virginia). There are other Democrats in the Senate who might support the measure if it was part of a broader legislative package, Heitkamp said today at the event.
"The Senate is a place where there is always an opportunity for compromise," she said. But adding too many other measures to the bill risked losing votes from other members, she said.
Republicans expect they will need to attach the crude exports bill to another legislative vehicle if they want it to pass in the Senate. Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) today said he expects the bill would win the support of "more than seven Democrats" if it had the right legislative vehicle, such as a bill that would overhaul US chemical safety regulations.
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