While industry officials and congressmen are applauding the repeal of a decades-old ban on exporting crude oil, opinions are mixed on how the decision will affect south Louisiana.
As The Daily Comet reports, the economic benefits of lifting the ban could be broad. Economists say exports could help the economy by reducing fuel prices. Energy is a huge cost for plenty of U.S. industries, from agriculture to airlines to manufacturing. Exports should also encourage investment in oil and gas production and transport, create jobs, make oil and gas supplies more stable, and reduce the U.S. trade deficit.
“I think it provides optimism and I feel good about it and I’m excited about it,” Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, told The Daily Comet. “But I don’t know how to be happy about the industry as a whole right now. The large companies are laying off these people, and what we hate seeing are these trained people out of jobs.”
Companies including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, along with the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas lobbying group, have been the biggest proponents of ending the ban.
Colorado energy analytics firm IHS predicts that lifting the ban will lead to $746 billion in new investments and 1 million new jobs within the next 15 years. And the decision is likely to have little impact on the consumer, according to a study released earlier this year by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Still, environmental groups worry that the rush by U.S. energy companies to supply the world with crude will lead to more local pollution and higher global emissions.
But the jobs and dollars won’t immediately appear. In fact, industry officials and economists project little short-term impact. Instead, lifting the ban best defends against further precipitous price drops.
Most of the immediate jobs will be for the construction of oil storage tank terminals along the Mississippi River, state economist Loren Scott says.
