Source: EIA [2]

For decades, U.S. politicians have made energy independence a patriotic platitude — with one result being a ban on exporting crude oil produced in the United States. Now some oil companies are getting exceptions to the export ban, and the Commerce Department won't say why. So a coalition of environmental groups have filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out.

The export ban is administered by Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. The export ban is known to exclude a product called "condensate," usually thought of as a liquid that condenses out of natural gas once it is pumped to the surface. But it's complicated, and now the exact method of defining condensate has become a billion-dollar question. The groups' FOIA demands to know the specific criteria used to define it.

• "Public Interest Groups File FOIA Request To Compel Disclosure Of Crude Oil Export Ban Exceptions," [3] DeSmogBlog, February 17, 2015, by Mike Gaworecki.
• "U.S. Oil Industry's Billion-Dollar Question: What Is Condensate?" [4] Reuters, October 8, 2014, by Catherine Ngai.