“This should be an easy call. Ending the ban on U.S. oil exports would be good for American families, good for our national security, and good for our allies…The Obama administration should work with Congress to end this ban on American energy exports as quickly as possible.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor calling on the Obama administration to work with Congress to end to the ban on U.S. crude oil exports.

Transcript of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Last week a bipartisan majority of Senators, members of this body, voted to try to stop President Obama’s dangerous and desperate deal with Iran.

“The president wants to give Iran relief from economic sanctions that the world had imposed.

“I believe that President Obama traded away these sanctions—he traded away them too readily – and he got too little in return.

“These sanctions included limits on the sale of Iranian oil.

“Now, according to one estimate, Iran could soon begin to export as much as a million additional barrels of oil each and every day.

“The money Iran makes from these sales will go, as I know, to shoring up its economy and it will go to building up Iran’s military.

“Some of it will undoubtedly go to supporting global terrorists.

“That’s what President Obama traded away.

“Iran will be allowed to sell its oil anywhere in the world – and American oil producers are largely prohibited from selling American oil anywhere in the world.

“Apparently, that’s exactly the way the White House wants to keep things.

“There is legislation working its way through Congress right now to lift the ban on American crude oil exports.

“The Obama administration has said that it doesn’t support the bill.

“They think that Congress shouldn’t even get to decide.

“They think it should be up to Washington bureaucrats in the Obama administration to make the decisions.

“The administration thinks that they are the only ones who should be allowed to decide whether the oil export ban gets lifted.

“It was the Obama administration that let Iran off the hook by signing such a terrible deal.

“It was the Obama administration that now wants to lift the sanctions – and give Iran access to more than a hundred billion dollars.

“Should the Obama administration be the ones to decide whether Iran gets to sell its oil without American competition? Is that what the president wants?

“Why is the Obama administration so interested in making sure Iran’s economy gets back on its feet faster?

“The president ought to be focused on helping America’s economy, not Iran’s economy.

“Right now, American producers export about 500,000 barrels of oil a day. Where does it go? It goes to Canada.

“Iran is exporting about one million barrels a day, but once President Obama lifts the sanctions, that number is going to jump to almost two million barrels a day.

“So President Obama favors a situation where Iran will be allowed to export four times as much oil as America does.

“And Senate Democrats who voted to help the President lift the sanctions, they want the same thing. That’s what they say, four to one, Iran over the United States.

“Republicans want something very different.

“If the export ban is lifted, U.S. energy producers could export another 1.6 million barrels a day.

“Our daily oil exports would jump from half a million barrels to about two million barrels—that’s what we want—lift the sanctions.

“At the same time, Republicans voted to keep the sanctions in place against Iran.

“So under Republican plans, America would be exporting twice as much oil as Iran.

“So the Democrats vote four for Iran, one for the United States. The Republicans voted two for the United States, one for Iran.

“That’s the difference between what Washington Democrats want, and what Senate Republicans want.

“The Brookings Institution looked into this in September 2014, they came out with a report.

“They looked at a variety of different scenarios for how much oil America might export.

“They found that for every scenario they looked at, ‘there are positive gains for U.S. households’ by the United States being able to export more crude oil.

“The Government Accountability Office said the same thing last year.

“It said that ‘Removing export restrictions is expected to increase the size of the economy, that’s the U.S. economy, with implications for employment, investment, public revenue, and trade.’ Those are key for America.

“These studies and others predict that adding American crude oil to global supplies could ultimately reduce gasoline prices right here at home.

“By how much you ask? Well, one study estimated that it would save American consumers an average of almost combined $6 billion a year.

“This study found that the savings would help increase the U.S. economy by about $38 billion by 2020.

“New oil exports could support an additional 300,000 jobs by 2020.

“These are huge benefits for the American economy, American families – all because we free up American energy, we allow it to compete on world’s markets.

“There would also be benefits for America’s foreign policy.

“More oil would reduce prices worldwide.

“That means that the other countries that export a lot of oil won’t be able to make as much money off of their own oil sales—they’d have to compete with us.

“This includes Iran – it includes countries like Russia and Venezuela.

“That would undercut the ability of those countries to do things that aren’t in our own, America’s best interest.

“It would also help American allies around the world.

“Poland gets 96 percent of its oil from Russia.

“When they’re negotiating to buy more oil, they would love the opportunity and the option of American oil as an alternative.

“Belgium gets 60 percent of its oil from Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“Japan gets 75 percent of its oil from Russia and the Middle East.

“All of these countries – and many more around the world – could benefit from U.S. oil being sold on the world market.

“Of course, another country that would really be helped is Israel.

“President Obama’s reckless deal with Iran has put Israel in a much more dangerous situation.

“Even the White House seems to recognize this.

“The Obama administration says that it plans to offer Israel more military aid – aid to be used to bolster Israel’s defenses against Iran.

“The administration should not stop at military aid. It should also offer Israel the opportunity to import American oil.

“Israel has trouble buying oil from many of its neighboring countries because they don’t recognize the State of Israel.

“Now that leaves places like Russia and Iraqi Kurdistan as its largest suppliers of crude oil.

“If the Israelis had the opportunity to buy from American oil producers instead, now that would be a big help to make sure that their oil supply is stable and secure.

“It would also help repair some of the significant damage that the president’s Iran deal did to relations between our two countries.

“This should be an easy call.

“Ending the ban on U.S. oil exports would be good for American families, good for our national security, and good for our allies.

“The Obama administration should change course now. The Obama administration should work with Congress to end this ban on American energy exports as quickly as possible.

“This past Saturday marked seven years since a Canadian company filed its application to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

“It has been buried in the bureaucratic limbo of the State Department ever since.

“That pipeline would provide American jobs just like more oil exports would.

“Americans should not have to wait another seven years for Washington to lift the oil export ban, and unleash the power of American energy.”

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