As Secretary Moniz pointed out, the current U.S. energy environment is considerably different from that of 40 years ago. The policies that are scarcity-based are unlikely to be appropriate for an energy environment that is now, with fracking technology having brought enormous supplies of both natural gas and new oil on line, flush with U.S. fossil fuels.

By allowing the price of U.S. crude to float to the world market price, the size of the subsidy needed to close the differential between renewables and oil can be reduced, and with continued development, bringing forward the day renewables become economically attractive.

Both the U.S. and (due to the size of the U.S. market) the world will probably benefit from having such a market distortion phased out.

Also, by allowing the price of U.S. crude to float to the world market price, exploration for and exploitation of what are uneconomical fields due to the export ban become attractive, as the North Sea oil became attractive following the increase of ME oil.

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Eudaimonia