The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the end of  the “40-year oil export ban could spell jobs for Louisiana” and “signals a major shift in American oil policy as new technology has put the nation over Saudi Arabia and Russia as the largest oil producer in the world.”
A pending end to a 40-year ban on American crude oil exports has delighted one Louisiana lawmaker. “Elimination of this ban is going to create thousands of jobs in Louisiana and tens of thousands of jobs across the country,” Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, the third highest ranked Republican in the House of Representatives, said Thursday (Dec. 17). “When you look at the impact of global oil prices right now, you’re seeing thousands get laid off in Louisiana. You’re seeing a lot of wells being shut in around the country, and yet we are the only country in the world that doesn’t allow the export of our oil. It makes no sense.”