BP spills oil, GOP sells oil, and Americans left footing the bill, says Senator

WASHINGTON (April 20, 2015) – On the 5^th anniversary of the 2010 BP oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in America’s history, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) announced today at an energy conference in Texas that she plan to introduce legislation to overturn the decades-old ban on exporting American oil abroad. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) who has opposed lifting the ban, released the following statement:

“On the 5^th anniversary of the largest offshore oil spill in America’s history, oil companies and their allies in the Republican party are trying to export America’s oil abroad. We shouldn’t have to choose between spilling America’s oil here or selling America’s oil abroad, because in both cases it is ordinary Americans who pay the steepest price.

“We shouldn’t be talking about selling American oil abroad when the oil industry still can get away with only a financial slap on the wrist for an oil spill. We shouldn’t open up the East Coast to offshore drilling when the oil industry plan is just to sell that oil to the highest foreign bidder to drive up prices at the pump. And we shouldn’t even contemplate selling America’s oil abroad when we still import more than 5 million barrels of oil every day from foreign nations.

“If we are going to bear the environmental risk of oil drilling, the American people should be the ones seeing the economic and national security benefits from American oil. The oil industry plan to export American oil isn’t about helping consumers at the pump, it’s about pumping up their own profits.”

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