Senator Heidi Heitkamp
Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Senator from North Dakota is urging lawmakers to repeal a 1970’s era ban on oil exports.
Related: Oil Export Ban May Hurt Economy
Taking the Senate floor last month, Heitkamp said that the existing restrictions on U.S. oil producers are harming America’s competitiveness. Heitkamp hopes to level the playing field by doing away with restrictions that hinder America’s economic growth and that threaten our long-term goal of becoming energy independent.
Not everyone is in favor of lifting the ban, however.
“Athan Manual, the director of the Lands Protection Program at the Sierra Club, said his biggest concern is how increased oil consumption around the world will impact climate change. “We don’t think we should be exporting global warming, basically, to other countries,” he said. “We think all the countries in the world should do what the U.S. is doing and dramatically reduce their use of fossil fuels, especially oil, to fight climate change.”