The Department of Energy recently approved an application from Alaska LNG to export natural gas. But there’s a catch: these exports can only go to nations where the United States has a free-trade agreement in place.

Never mind the fact that the top markets for LNG are India, China, and Japan, where we don’t have free-trade agreements set up.So essentially, the company is stuck alongside the 20-plus U.S. natural gas companies that are awaiting approval to sell abroad.  Some have been waiting for nearly three years.

Despite the rapid expansion of the American energy sector, the American regulatory apparatus hasn’t kept pace with the industry’s growth. New exploration techniques like fracking have opened up giant swaths of underground energy reserves in places like North Dakota and Pennsylvania. And the operations established to dig up the embedded oil and natural gas have created hundreds of thousands of new jobs and driven billions in new economic activity.

But now, unnecessary regulations are stifling firms with outdated rules. Most notably, the federal approval process energy producers have to navigate in order to sell in foreign markets is extremely restrictive. It’s needlessly difficult for firms to ship surplus oil and gas to eager customers abroad.

The regulatory environment guiding energy exports is literally a relic of another age.

In 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act banning crude oil exports. This move was meant to counteract oil embargos enacted by energy-rich nations in the Middle East.

And although natural gas exports are not officially banned, the Natural Gas Act of 1938 and Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 created so many regulatory hoops that export applications typically languish on government desks in perpetuity.

These antiquated restrictions look ridiculous in light of modern energy industry developments.

The United States now leads the world in annual energy production. Since 2008, total oil and natural gas production have jumped 58 percent and 21 percent, respectively.  The U.S. Energy Information Agency now predicts that if production growth keeps pace America will be completely weaned off foreign imports before 2040.

Domestic production already outpaces domestic demand. Allowing producers to ship the excess abroad would generate massive economic benefits here at home. Foreign sales would be reinvested in new domestic exploration operations, creating more jobs and economic growth.

A recent report from NERA Consulting found that unrestricted gas exportation could create 452,300 new jobs over the next two decades and add nearly $74 billion to our GDP.

The economic benefits of expanding crude oil exports are equally impressive.

The research firm IHS Energy predicts that lifting the export ban would increase crude oil production by about 1.2 million barrels a day by 2016.  That expansion would create over 200,000 new jobs and add $86 billion to GDP.

The proponents of energy export restrictions usually argue that allowing producers to sell abroad would diminish the local supply of oil and gas and drive up energy prices for average Americans.

That’s faulty logic. In fact, if the United States fails to increase exports, domestic oil production will likely decrease. Our refineries aren’t able to process all the crude oil being generated here at home. If the ban remains, production will probably drop — if the oil can’t be refined, it can’t be sold.

However, if developers were empowered to sell their oil on the international market, they’d still have a financial incentive to keep producing.

It’s a similar story for natural gas. Allowing exports will stimulate more production. The domestic supply will expand, not contract.

It’s high time American regulators shelved the antiquated restrictions on oil and natural gas exports. These rules don’t serve any useful function. And they suppress industry growth. Getting rid of them will stimulate job creation and economic growth for decades to come.