This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, September 20th, 2013.

I'm Caleb Brown. Trade is good.

So why is free trade and energy so bound up in protectionist restrictions?

Scott Linsicum, an international trade attorney, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute

says contrary to popular opinion, free trade and energy would be good news for Americans.

Whenever I talk to Dan Eichenson here at the Cato Institute, the first line of any

podcast that we record for the most part is, trade is good right and I feel like that

point actually has to be made over and over and over again because no matter

where we go we see evidence of policies that indicate that trade is probably bad.

And energy is sort of a good example of that.

It's a fantastic example of it.

And in fact, what's so interesting about energy trade in the United States is that it even is supported by the kind

of mercantilist views that exports are good.

We, due to the amazing shale revolution that the United States has witnessed in

the last 10 years we are poised to become a net energy exporter for the first time in decades.

However, we have export restrictions in place that dramatically curtail the exports of natural gas and crude oil.

So for once, here we actually have the mercantilist favorite argument for exports, exports, exports,

and yet we have restrictions in place that dramatically limit those.

Okay, so if I'm hearing a politician talk to constituents, we need energy independence,

we shouldn't be sending our cheap energy to other countries and help them develop.

What is a problem in that thinking?

Oh, there's multiple problems. The most obvious is that those politicians fail to understand that by curtailing exports,

...