This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 13, 2015. I'm Caleb Brown.

The House has voted to allow domestic oil producers to export crude for the first time in a long time.

So why haven't oil producers been able to take full advantage of global oil markets until now?

Emma Ashford, a visiting research fellow at the Cato Institute, explains who wins and who loses

with a freer oil market.

So it goes all the way back to 1973.

When the Arab countries in response to the Arab Israeli war banned the export of oil

to the United States and that was a really big deal at the time.

We were heavily dependent on oil from the Middle East, there were long gas lines at, you know,

gas stations as cars tried to cue to get gas, lots of shortages, the price went sky high,

and so in response the following year the government did a couple

of things that set up the strategic petroleum reserve so that in a time of war or a time of

real shortage they could use some of that reserve to help the shortfall, and

then they also banned the export of any crude oil production, so it stayed in the U.S.

rather than being sent abroad.

Okay, so here we are.

The House has now voted to lift this ban on crude oil exports.

What would that mean if that were to happen? Well, it would mean that for the first time since 1974,

with some key exceptions, companies would be allowed

to sell the crude oil that they make here.

And the big thing is that a lot has changed since the ban was put in place.

At the time we were heavily dependent on foreign oil and while no trade

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