NDPC NEWS RELEASE
Wednesday, July 8, 2015

NDPC Vice President Kari Cutting to appear before U.S. House Committee on Agriculture to Urge Repeal of Crude Export Ban

 

Washington, D.C. – Kari Cutting, vice president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) appeared before the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture today, Wednesday, July 8, to urge lawmakers to lift the ban on exporting crude oil and to highlight the positive economic impacts oil and gas development has had on rural communities, especially in North Dakota.

 

“In 2006, horizontal drilling technology unlocked the Bakken, resulting in a surge of oil and gas production, making North Dakota equivalent to the nineteenth largest oil producing country,” says Cutting. “With development came a rural economic renaissance for our state. Once shrinking rural communities are now growing, as new people move to the state and others return home to be closer to family. Oil development has helped supplement incomes for many local farmers and ranchers who once worried about holding on to the family farm. A new diesel refinery that recently began operating and proposed fertilizer plants and other value-added projects will help further lower input costs for ag producers further helping rural growth.”


“But this rural renaissance is being threatened by foreign entities not always friendly to the United States and by restrictions imposed on the sale of oil abroad. The U.S. government should lift the ban on crude oil exports and allow oil produced in places like North Dakota to reach global markets. Lifting the ban on crude oil exports would immediately restore our competitiveness and revive the renaissance in rural America.  Not only would rural America prosper, but all U.S. citizens would benefit from lifting the ban.”

Cutting’s prepared testimony for the hearing is attached.