Lefties still blame high gas prices on oil companies still in business in spite of the left's crushing regulations imposed in efforts to eliminate fossil fuels from a brave new socialist fascist world without God, or individual freedoms and prosperity.The U.S. fossil fuel industry has dramatically ramped up exports of oil and natural gas in recent years, seeking to profit on the international market and keep prices high at home. The 2015 repeal of a 40-year-old ban on most crude oil exports and the construction of natural gas export terminals on the Gulf Coast has allowed the industry to maximize exports and rake in extraordinary profits while consumers and the climate pay the price.
A Public Citizen analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data found that:
- For crude oil, about 29% of U.S. production in the first six months of 2022 was exported. That is more than double the 12% exported in 2017 and quadruple the 7% exported in 2016, the first full year of unrestricted crude oil exports. In the first six months of 2022, 3.4 million barrels per day of crude oil were exported from the U.S., nearly three times as much as in 2017, when about 1.2 million barrels per day were exported.
- For natural gas, more than 20% of U.S. production in the first six months of 2022 was exported. That was up from 11.5% in 2017 and 6.6% in 2015. An average of nearly 591 billion cubic feet of natural gas per month―including 336 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas―was exported from the U.S. in the first six months of 2022. Total natural gas exports in 2022 were more than double 2017 levels.
- In pushing to lift the crude oil export ban in 2015, the fossil fuel industry greatly oversold the purported consumer benefits. Unregulated exports have left U.S. consumers even more exposed to volatile global energy markets.
- Unprecedented exports of natural gas contribute directly to soaring U.S. natural gas prices tying the prices families in the U.S. pay for heating their homes to global calamities. Natural gas exports have radically upended domestic energy markets and are the primary factor in record price increases for both natural gas and electricity, fueling higher levels of energy poverty and unleashing energy insecurity for tens of millions of American households.
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