An Oil Export Ban Would Reverse America’s Energy Dominance

BusinessEnergyAn Oil Export Ban Would Reverse America’s Energy DominanceByDan Eberhart,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dan Eberhart is CEO of Canary, LLC.Follow AuthorJun 12, 2026, 11:44am EDTThe Clearocean Mesquite oil products tanker docked at the Port of Long Beach in April. Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesEvery time gasoline prices rise, Washington rediscovers bad ideas. Few are as self-defeating as the proposal to ban U.S. crude oil exports.It sounds simple enough: keep American oil at home and prices will fall. But energy markets do not work that way. A national oil export ban would not deliver cheaper gasoline for American families. It would choke off U.S. production, punish shale producers, weaken investment, threaten energy jobs, and give more leverage to OPEC and other hostile producing nations. It would also reverse one of America’s biggest energy victories of the last generation.Congress lifted the crude oil export ban at the end of 2015 because the shale revolution had changed the facts on the ground. The old world was one of scarcity and dependence on imports. From 2004 to 2007, the United States imported an average of 10 million barrels of crude oil per day. Then horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing unlocked enormous new supplies. From 2009 to 2019, U.S. crude oil production grew by nearly 7 million barrels per day. That one policy change helped turn the United States from an import-dependent energy consumer into a global energy supplier. Today, the United States is the world’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas. U.S. crude production hit a record 13.6 million barrels per day in 2025, while dry natural gas production reached a record 39 trillion cubic feet.The export story is just as important. Total U.S. energy exports reached a record in 2025. Petroleum remained the largest source of U.S. energy exports, and the Energy Information Administration notes that petroleum exports grew...