Why indeed.

What is really curious to me is why Murkowski would be leading this effort to export USA crude oil. Alaskan oil is all but dried up. Except for all these horrid oils such as that found in Canada's oil sands there is little to export from the USA.

By Liz Ruskin, APRN - Washington DC
Posted on January 31, 2014 at 6:23 am

A campaign by Senator Lisa Murkowski(click here) to lift the decades-old ban on crude oil exports got its first hearing in Washington today. It’s been 25 years since Congress has formally considered the ban it adopted during the Arab oil embargo, but the recent energy boom in the Lower 48 is triggering new debates.

To some people it still sounds crazy. Why consider selling American crude overseas when the U.S. still imports 40 percent of its oil from other countries? And then there’s the question of the impact on consumer prices.

Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon, says that’s his focus.

“American families and American business deserve to know what exports would mean for their specific needs when they fill up at the pump or get their delivery of heating oil,” Wyden said.

The witnesses at the hearing spoke from their own economic corners. Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, the largest leaseholder in North Dakota’s Bakken play, says the ban gives undue advantage to U.S. refineries. They can sell their fuel overseas, but as he put it, producers

like him are stuck being their milk cows.  A Delta Airlines executive, on the other hand, says allowing crude exports will force the price up to whatever OPEC wants it to be, and American consumers will have to pay more for airline tickets and everything else....

...Murkowski says it’s good for policymakers to ask questions and ponder the issue. She figures it will take a lot more dialogue before Congress members and their constituents feel comfortable with lifting the ban. But she also says we’re running out of time.

“We get to a point where we have a mismatch between what we are producing domestically and the capacity within our refineries,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski says without exports, we may reach that point of oversupply in just two years. After the hearing, Murkowski said Alaskans have a special reason to be concerned, because North Slope oil may have to compete for West Coast refinery space....

Over supply.

Sounds good to me. 

If in two years time the USA has an oversupply of crude oil and we are using far less for energy, why drill? 

Perfect timing if you ask me.