Fuel Fix reports: “Ending the United States’ longstanding ban against most crude exports could lift oil prices inside the country while decreasing the cost of gasoline, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.”  

“The document — the first broad government analysis of proposed oil exports — dovetails with industry-backed studies predicting lower gasoline prices would result if repealing the export ban spurred more domestic crude production and helped lower world prices for the fossil fuel. Domestic gasoline prices tend to track the international Brent crude benchmark, rather than US. oil prices.”  

“The GAO report — largely a digest of four existing studies and interviews with refiners, oil producers and other stakeholders — isn’t the silver bullet that export advocates want. They are waiting for a more definitive analysis from the government’s Energy Information Administration, expected later this year.”