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Editorial

Oil Exports Should Be Paired With Clean Energy Tax Breaks

Credit...Mikey Burton

The oil industry and its friends in Congress, mostly Republicans, want to get rid of restrictions on exports of crude oil that were established 40 years ago during the energy crisis. President Obama and most Democratic lawmakers are rightly opposed to such measures, at least in their current form.

A boom in oil production in recent years has created a domestic glut, in part because American refineries do not have the capacity to process the grade of crude oil discovered in Texas and North Dakota into gasoline, diesel and other marketable fuels. Producers are therefore pressing Congress and the Obama administration to allow the sale of American crude oil abroad — above and beyond the very limited exports now allowed by law.

Congress forbade oil exports in 1975, when the nation was still reeling from the Arab oil embargo and long gas lines, allowing only exceptions in the “national interest.” Until recently, there was no serious interest in changing that policy, not least because dwindling reserves made America increasingly dependent on imports from volatile and sometimes hostile parts of the world. Between 2010 and 2014, however, domestic oil production shot up 59 percent, to 3.2 billion barrels a year, according to the Energy Information Administration, while imports dropped 21 percent, to 3.4 billion barrels a year.

Companies that produce oil argue that removing export restrictions would boost the economy and provide foreign allies with another source of oil, so they would rely less on Russia and the Middle East. But companies that refine oil are worried that making it easier to sell American oil abroad would increase overall demand, raise the price they pay for crude and hurt their profits.

The environmental community vigorously asserts that allowing more exports would increase oil production, open sensitive offshore waters to drilling and increase the carbon emissions responsible for climate change.

There is no question that policy makers need to figure out ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels and lower emissions. However, a recent report by the Energy Information Administration asserts that lifting export restrictions would result in a very small increase in oil production in the next 10 years, and would have little to no impact on domestic gasoline prices. Changing the law would lower profits for refiners by about $22.7 billion over the next 10 years, but would boost profits for oil producers by as much as $29.7 billion.

Therein may lie the seeds of a bargain. The House on Friday passed a bill lifting restrictions on crude oil exports. The White House has said it will veto it — a veto the Republicans almost certainly cannot override. But what if the industry and the Republicans offered a deal — a bill, say, that would lift the ban on exports in exchange for a host of measures that could actually help in the fight against climate change?

These measures could include long-term extensions of tax credits for renewable fuels like wind and solar power, which are set to expire next year. And any such bill would have to put a stop, once and for all, to some of the billions of dollars of lucrative and wholly unnecessary tax breaks that the oil and gas industry has enjoyed for years.

Republicans as a whole care little about climate change and have a deep aversion to compromising with Mr. Obama. Perhaps on this issue they can remove their blinders.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: For Now, Keep the Ban on Oil Exports. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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