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“Beware of
Those Who Do Things in the Name of Good”
By Kate Burch
Harold Hamm, chairman of the domestic Energy Producers Alliance, points
out in the June 22 Wall Street Journal that the ban on exports of U.S.
crude oil, left over from the Nixon era, has done great harm to the
American economy and is hobbling the boom in U.S. oil production due to
fracking. Fully 28% of American oil refining capacity is
foreign-owned. Producers from other countries started buying into
American refining in the 1980’s and the refineries have mostly been
configured to process heavy crude oil, rather than the light “sweet”
crude produced in the U.S. These foreign entities have
taken advantage of an ill-conceived law based on the erroneous belief
that we were running out of oil, to ensure continued demand for their
product and keep us from becoming energy-independent. Rescinding
this ban on exports, according to Mr. Hamm, is an urgent need, not only
to allow us to get out from under the thumb of OPEC, but also to
prevent our allies from being forced, at some hazard, to buy their oil
from Russia and Iran.
What jumps out at me is that this export ban is yet another example of
a law passed on the basis of insufficient or erroneous information that
ends up causing harm, rather than benefit. Some laws of
this kind are hysterical overreactions, such as the ban on DDT, passed
in reaction to Rachel Carson’s polemic, “Silent Spring.” The DDT
ban has since been directly responsible for millions of preventable
deaths from malaria. Other such laws result from special
interests convincing gullible legislators or, in some cases, buying
politicians. The mandated addition to gasoline of ethanol, which
we have seen not only harms car engines, but consumes more energy in
its production than it saves in its use, comes to mind.
Pro-ethanol lobbyists, we know, have worked very hard to advance the
interests of Midwestern corn producers. You could probably think
of a dozen or so such laws in a few minutes.
Perhaps, if we could somehow return to the Founders’ ideal of “citizen
legislators” and Congress convened for only, say, six long weekends per
year, they would do less mischief. (Sigh.)
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