Energy Reality Check: Keystone Crude Won’t Be Exported – Forbes

In my previous post about the outlandish rhetoric that has sprung up around the Keystone XL pipeline project, one of the comments included this often-repeated claim: “The problem is none of the oil will stay in the U.S. It will be sold to the highest bidder.”

First of all, the statement is simply wrong on its face. Exports of crude oil from the U.S. have been banned by Congress for more than 30 years. (The one exception is a small amount of crude that can be exported from Alaska to Canada.) So under the current law, none of the crude from Keystone will be leaving the U.S.

There have been some murmurings in Congress recently that rising domestic crude production might warrant lifting the ban on exports, but that’s a long way from becoming reality.

via Energy Reality Check: Keystone Crude Won’t Be Exported – Forbes.