Originally Posted by Excargodog

Disagree.

Were the US to DESIRE to do so, Congress coukd pass an excess profits tax on US oil companies exporting that would disincentivize petrochemical exports. They could LARGELY divorce the US petrochemical industry from the REST of the world economy. The companies would make less money and the international price of oil woukd increase, but manipulations to maximize profits (or retain more money locally) is what OPEC has been doing for decades.