Harvard Study Yet Another Call for Repeal of 1970s Oil Export Ban

This is a good read from EnergyInDepth.org – a recent Harvard Business School study calls for a repeal of the oil export ban levied in the 1970s as one step in a multi-pronged strategy to bolster American energy independence.

Link to EID Story: http://energyindepth.org/ohio/new-harvard-report-five-ways-shale-development-is-a-win-win/

Link to the HBS Study: http://www.hbs.edu/competitiveness/Documents/america-unconventional-energy-opportunity.pdf

I would not bet any money based on this, but I bet that one of the first dominoes to fall should a Republican take the White House in 2016 (which based on my knowledge of political science is more likely than not, even with the clown car of Republican candidates already in the field) will be the oil export ban. CEOs of major oil companies – including Scott Sheffield of Pioneer Natural Resources (#PXD), Lee Tillman of Marathon Oil Corporation (#MRO), and the soon-to-be-departing Steven Chazen of Occidental Petroleum (#OXY) – have been advocating its repeal in closed-door meetings in Washington, D.C. for several months. Sheffield earlier this year called 50/50 odds of this repeal occurring in 2015, almost no chance of it happening in 2016 due to the focus on the presidential election, but said that 2017 should be the end of the line.