U.S. Reverses Decades of Oil-Export Limits With Obama's Backing
- President signs bill to end 40-year-old trade restrictions
- Congress approves repeal as provision in spending legislation
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With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama on Friday ended 40 years of U.S. crude oil export limits by signing off on a repeal passed by Congress earlier in the day.
The restrictions lift immediately under a provision in the spending and tax package that the president signed into law. Congressional leaders earlier in the week reached an agreement to end the trade restrictions, established during U.S. oil shortages in the 1970s, as part of a grand bargain that includes tax breaks for renewable-energy companies and refiners.