U.S. House Passes Bill to Lift Crude Oil Exports But Veto Looms
By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – A invoice to repeal the U.S. oil export ban handed the House of Representatives on Friday, however faces an unsure future after a veto risk by President Barack Obama.
The invoice sponsored by Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, handed the House 261 to 159, failing to achieve the 290 votes essential to overturn a presidential veto.
Only 26 Democrats voted for the invoice regardless of Republicans’ late effort to draw them by including a measure to supply funds for the Maritime Security Program. The fleet of privately-owned ships brings provides to U.S. troops and allies overseas.
The White House this week threatened to veto the House invoice, saying Congress ought to work to maneuver the nation to cleaner sources of vitality. The administration advocated measures together with ending billions of {dollars} in tax breaks for oil corporations and as an alternative investing in wind and solar energy and vitality effectivity.
Congress handed the ban in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo precipitated snaking strains at gasoline stations and fears of world oil shortages.
“Much has changed since the ban on crude was put in place,” Representative Fred Upton, a Republican of Michigan. “One of biggest threats to the American energy boom today is not an international actor, but rather our own ban on oil exports.”
Backers of repealing the commerce restriction say it will hold the drilling increase alive and assist U.S. allies discover various sources of oil past Russia and the Middle East.
Opponents of lifting the ban, together with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union, say it can value jobs in refineries and shipbuilding. Greens, in the meantime, say extra vitality drilling will hurt the setting.
Representative Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey, a state with a number of refineries, opposed the invoice, saying it will be a “windfall to the oil industry.”
Two related payments within the Senate have handed via committees, however backers are struggling to seek out sufficient Democrats to move laws within the full chamber. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; modifying by Christian Plumb)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.
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