[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1996 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1996

   To authorize the Secretary of Energy to temporarily prohibit the 
exportation of a finished petroleum product or liquefied petroleum gas 
 from the United States if the Secretary determines that the supply of 
  the product or gas in any Petroleum Allocation Defense District has 
               fallen or will fall below expected demand.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 10, 2005

   Mr. Kohl introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To authorize the Secretary of Energy to temporarily prohibit the 
exportation of a finished petroleum product or liquefied petroleum gas 
 from the United States if the Secretary determines that the supply of 
  the product or gas in any Petroleum Allocation Defense District has 
               fallen or will fall below expected demand.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stop Heating Oil Exports Act of 
2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) according to the Energy Information Administration, 
        households heated primarily with heating oil can expect to pay 
        an average increase of $378, or 32 percent more than last year, 
        to heat their homes;
            (2) households relying on propane can expect to pay, on 
        average, $325 more this winter;
            (3) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
        projects a 3.2-percent colder winter than last year, and if 
        colder weather prevails, home heating expenditures will be 
        significantly higher;
            (4) high home heating prices will disproportionately impact 
        moderate- and low-income families;
            (5) in October 2000, the Secretary of Energy, Bill 
        Richardson, successfully worked with major refiners to 
        temporarily halt heating oil exports, to ensure adequate 
        supplies of home heating oil for the winter;
            (6) between January and August 2005, refiners in the United 
        States have exported more than 48,000,000 barrels, or 
        2,000,000,000 gallons, of product that could be used for home 
        heating; and
            (7) at a time when consumers in the United States can 
        expect nearly double their home heating costs in 2004, refiners 
        in the United States should not be diminishing the supply by 
        exporting home heating products.

SEC. 3. AUTHORITY TO TEMPORARILY PROHIBIT EXPORT OF CERTAIN PETROLEUM 
              PRODUCTS.

    If the Secretary of Energy determines that the supply of a finished 
petroleum product or liquefied petroleum gas in any of the 5 Petroleum 
Allocation Defense Districts has fallen or will fall below expected 
demand for the product or gas, the Secretary may temporarily prohibit 
the exportation of the product or gas from the United States.
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