Ronald Reagan’s first official act on becoming president in January 1981 was to completely abolish domestic price controls on oil. The following autumn, without any fuss or hullabaloo, the Reagan administration also ended restrictions on exporting petroleum products—gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, and other products that had gone through the refining process. No one seemed to notice. But the ban on crude oil exports remained. There matters rested until the sudden emergence of shale oil. As the volumes rose so dramatically, so did a call to lift the export ban.
