WASHINGTON — The White House says it opposes a House Republican bill to lift the four-decade-old ban on crude oil exports.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday that instead of trying to “cozy up to oil interests,” Republicans should support investments in wind and solar power and other renewable energy.
Republicans and some Democrats in the House and Senate have pushed to end the export ban, saying an ongoing boom in oil and gas drilling has made those 1970s-era restrictions obsolete.
A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration — an arm of the Energy Department — says lifting the ban would not hurt consumers at the gasoline pump. Opponents say lifting the ban would make it harder for U.S. refineries to compete internationally and could lead to job losses.
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