WASHINGTON, DC - Lifting the ban on U.S. crude oil exports would add up to 440,000 new energy supply chain jobs and $64 billion of additional GDP to the U.S. economy by 2018, according to a June 3 letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The letter was signed by twenty national supply chain trade associations and one labor union.
Enabling crude oil exports, now prohibited by an obsolete law from the 1970s, would bring economic growth to all fifty states. This will stimulate the economies of local communities as it creates jobs and growth in the energy supply chain. The supply chain includes businesses and workers that provide construction, equipment, materials, logistics, professional services and information technology used in crude oil production.
The letter stated that opening global markets to U.S. producers will support added energy production that will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and contribute tens of billions of GDP dollars in the supply chain within the next few years. The projections are based on a new study by IHS Economics measuring the economic impact of lifting the ban on crude oil exports.
That same study found that for every job gained or lost at the crude oil producer level, three jobs are gained or lost in the supply chain. The letter added that jobs are being lost and investments reduced because American producers are prevented from exporting American crude oil.
According to the letter, U.S. crude oil exports will also put downward pressure on domestic fuel prices, while providing Americas allies and trading partners with an alternative to obtaining energy supplies from unfriendly and unstable sources.
