Obama Admin's Year-End Gift to the Oil Industry Quietly Allows Light Oil Exports

[RiverLover]

Obama Admin's Year-End Gift to the Oil Industry Quietly Allows Light Oil Exports
1/9/15

In a quiet move in the last days of 2014 that involved zero public debate, the Obama administration gave a big gift to the oil industry by allowing the export of light crude oil. This change by the administration stands to make the industry a few extra billion dollars per year by allowing them to sell crude oil on the international market where it gets a higher price than if it is sold to U.S. refineries.

So what bill was passed at the last minute of 2014 overturning the 40-year-old crude oil export ban and allowing companies to now export fracked crude oil? None.

...So how does an industry overturn longstanding legislation that was designed to protect the U.S. economy from fluctuations in the global oil market? First, there are the normal industry channels of lobbying and advertising over the past year to influence public opinion and get the politicians to do their bidding. But that process is expected to take significantly more time and money to result in officially ending the crude oil export ban.

So if you are the oil industry, you innovate. You call the oil you are producing condensate, get the regulators at the little known Bureau of Industry and Security to agree to not define what condensate actually is and then have them tell you that you as an industry are free to “self classify” your oil as condensate and export it.

Problem solved. Billions in profits made. Politicians provided with cover...

But wait, there's more!

A Yahoo Finance headline sums up the additional implications of this recent change in FAQs.

Obama move on U.S. oil exports paves way for Canadian crude, too

When handing out gifts to the North American oil industry these days, you want to make sure to include Canadian tar sands producers too. So how does this new “informal suggestion” help the tar sands industry? Several different ways that involve exporting Canadian tar sands oil from U.S. ports....

http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/09/happy-new-year-oil-industry-obama-admin-quietly-allows-light-oil-exports

[ChosenUnWisely]

1. One again the deeds are not matching the rhetoric

Funny how who he seems to really work for always get what they want with no debate under cover of darkness.

How very republican.

[RiverLover]

3. Yep. nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. Once again, a DU successfully dredges the internets to find ...

an anti-President Obama, "He's a corporate tool" article ... well ... almost! Did you read this part?

So if you are the oil industry, you innovate. You call the oil you are producing condensate, get the regulators at the little known Bureau of Industry and Security to agree to not define what condensate actually is and then have them tell you that you as an industry are free to “self classify” your oil as condensate and export it.

Problem solved. Billions in profits made. Politicians provided with cover. And then you let sources “familiar with the matter” tell Reuters that this has been “carefully couched” as an “informal suggestion.”

Of course you did ... it is in your excerpt. Did you NOT pick up on the 3 step "sprinkle with pixy dust here" part, necessary to make this horrible, horrible thing work?

On a completely unrelated note ...

Here's MY plan for becoming a millionaire ... I'm going to innovate. I'll call the fecal matter I produce "organic growth promotion solution", get the regulators at the little known Bureau of Industry and Security to agree to not define what "organic growth promotion solution" actually is and then have them tell me that I as an industry am free to “self classify” my sh!t as "organic growth promotion solution" and I will be a millionaire ... a millionaire, I tell you!

Brahh ha ha ha ...

[RiverLover]

4. I'm an environmentalist, so I go to that site regularly. No dredging required.

And I wasn't happy to find this out.

I voted for him, twice. I was a volunteer through MoveOn.org for his 2008 campaign. I find it heartbreaking.

[1StrongBlackMan]

5. Okay. n/t

[tblue]

9. I guess that's not good enough.

Very sad.

[Bobbie Jo]

6. Yup

Encore!

[ChosenUnWisely]

8. Anti Obama mmmm ok, are you claiming he did not do this?

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. I'm noting that this ...

like much of the OUTRAGE!!! on DU is only outrage when pixy dust (i.e., 3 unlikely steps) is accomplished.

[INdemo]

7. Well lets see we had the gifts to Wall St

then we had the U.S. job killing TPP,and now the gifts to the oil companies.
Lets call this the Obama roll backs. Doesn't save U.S. consumers any money, in fact it will cost us. It just sounds good.

Maybe we should send President Obama a blue vest with the words "Obama roll backs"
"And there is more coming".

So do you still believe Obama is a Democrat?
Damn I was fooled twice by this corporate Republican

Just maybe the President will have a Super Bowl Commercial previewing his "Roll Backs"

[Dustlawyer]

10. Maybe we should be demanding an end to the legal bribery of our politicians!

Demand Publicly Funded Elections, that's what Bernie Sanders and Bill Moyers and many others think too! The oil companies have so much money they corrupt everything they touch! You should look into their corruption of the Gulf oil spill litigation where they bribed the Plaintiff's Steering Committee with $660,000,000!

[L0oniX]

12. All they care about is big corporations...

and the first thing these assholes in congress do is the XL shit. The US people be damned ...it's all for the corporations.