A Critical Study of Two Aspects of the U.S. Crude Petroleum Industry

Abstract

The quota program was originally enacted to protect the prorationing system and its dependent oil industry from cheaper foreign oil imports. This paper will review the conditions at its enactment and the goals aimed for; the actual results and effects from the quota will be critically examined also. The arguments for and against the quota will be evaluated. It will be shown that the oil import quota has no sound or justifiable economic reasons for being maintained. It will become evident that the reasons for the quota (and the prorationing system) are now nothing more than prof1ts for the oil industry, at the expense of the rest of the nation.