API's Common Sense Jobs Proposal

Jane Van Ryan
Posted December 4, 2009

Although the oil and natural gas industry was not invited to the White House Jobs Summit yesterday, API today unveiled a legislative proposal that could create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Among the provisions contained in the legislation are proposals to:

• Repeal the moratoria on oil and natural gas development in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico;
• Require the Interior Department to hold a lease sale in certain Eastern Gulf areas where natural gas is known to exist within one year of passage;
• Provide assurances that the 2010-2015 offshore five-year leasing plan will move forward; Authorize leasing within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR);
• Establish revenue sharing beginning in 2017 for coastal states with production off their coasts thereby providing them a portion of the royalty payments that go to the federal government; and
• Streamline permitting.

"Our industry has a proven track record of being able to create and protect well-paying American jobs. This proposed legislation will do just that and generate billions of dollars in government revenue," Erik Milito, API's senior upstream policy advisor, told Oil Daily. "We will be sharing these ideas with all policymakers interested in job creation."

"We're not looking for any subsidies or stimulus, just more access," said API President Jack Gerard.

A recent study shows that the oil and natural gas industry employs or supports 9.2 million American jobs. Furthermore, conservative estimates show that at least 160,000 jobs would be created during the next 20 years if onshore and offshore areas that have been off-limits were opened to development. More domestic energy development also could improve U.S. energy security.

Allowing the oil and natural gas industry to develop more domestic energy is an affordable, common-sense approach to addressing the nation's economic challenges and putting America back to work.