The fresh calls came after new reporting detailed how rising U.S. crude exports have helped push the nation’s gas prices to record highs. With gas prices surging to unprecedented levels across the United States, President Joe Biden on Thursday faced fresh calls to use his authority to temporarily halt crude oil exports that—in addition to damaging the climate—have contributed significantly to rising costs at the pump. In 2015, the Republican-controlled Congress crammed into an omnibus spending bill a provision that ended the four-decade ban on U.S. crude oil exports, a decision backed by the oil and gas industry. “We called for banning oil exports seven months ago!” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted last week, referring to a letter he sent along with nine other Democrats back in November. The [U.S. government] isn’t powerless to bring gas prices down.”Common Dream’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 18, 2022 00:16 UTC