Energizing Minnesota
Reid Porter
Posted July 29, 2015
Our series highlighting the economic and jobs impact of energy in each of the 50 states continues today with Minnesota. We started this week with North Dakota and Illinois. All information covered in this series can be found online here, arranged on an interactive map of the United States. State-specific information across the country will be populated on this map as the series continues.
As we can see with Minnesota, the energy impacts of the states individually combine to form energy’s national economic and jobs picture: 9.8 million jobs supported and $1.2 trillion in value added.
Click on the thumbnail to bring up a two-page snapshot of energy’s benefits to Minnesota.
The top-line numbers: 122,100 jobs supported statewide, according to a PwC study issued in 2013; $14.3 billion added to the state economy; $6 billion contributed to the state’s labor income. These numbers have continued to grow and show that the energy industry is a significant driver for the state’s economy.
Page 2 of the document highlights that exports of U.S. crude oil would can put downward pressure on U.S. gasoline prices. In fact, consumers are among the first to benefit from free trade, and crude oil is no exception. Gasoline costs are tied to a global market; additional crude oil exports could help increase supplies, put downward pressure on the prices at the pump and create more jobs throughout the United States.
When added up across all of the states that can benefit from exports, nationally, LNG and crude exports could significantly reduce our trade deficit, increase government revenues, grow the economy, and support millions of U.S. jobs in engineering, manufacturing, construction, and facility operations.
Energy is critically important to Minnesota, serving as a key engine for the state economy – expanding job opportunities and offering the hope of prosperity to individual Minnesotans and their families.
The future benefits of energy for Minnesota – and the rest of the country – largely depend on national decisions on the country’s energy path. A new Wood Mackenzie study contrasts the benefits that a set of pro-development policies could have on energy supplies, jobs, the economy and American households with the likely negative effects on energy of regulatory constrained policies. The key comparisons are found on the first page of the linked document.
Energy is essential for all facets of our daily lives, from powering national, state and local economies to powering the family vehicle. Safe, responsible development of domestic oil and natural gas resources is linked to individual prosperity, energy security and basic liberties.
About The Author
Reid Porter is a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute. Before joining API, he worked as Account Supervisor at Edelman. Porter double majored in English Literature and the Spanish language at Middlebury College in Vermont. He enjoys traveling, cheering for the Green Bay Packers, soccer, rereading Hemingway novels and spending time with family.