Energizing Pennsylvania
Reid Porter
Posted September 4, 2015
Our series highlighting the economic and jobs impact of energy in each of the 50 states continues today with Pennsylvania. We started the series with Virginia on June 29 and began this week with reviews of Louisiana, Rhode Island, Nevada and New York. Information for all 50 states can be found online here, arranged on an interactive map of the United States.
As we can see with Pennsylvania, 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 Pennsylvania.
The top-line numbers for Pennsylvania: more than 330,000 jobs supported statewide, according to a PwC study issued in 2013; $34.6 billion added to the state economy; over $19billion contributed to the state’s labor income.
Page 2 of the document highlights the promising economic opportunities for Pennsylvanians if given access to foreign customers by allowing U.S. energy exports. In 2020, the allowance of oil and natural gas exports could add more than 14,500 new jobs and more than $2 million in additional income contribution for Pennsylvanians.
Just this week, a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report confirms that “without crude oil export restrictions, the Brent-WTI spread is limited by the export option, but still remains above its 2014 level. With or without current crude oil export restrictions, domestic refiners are also expected to maintain a significant advantage compared to offshore refiners given the continued projected availability of low-cost domestic natural gas, which is used as both a fuel and feedstock by refiners.”
According to the same new EIA report consumers could save on fuel costs if policymakers act now to lift trade restrictions on U.S. crude oil. The EIA report reinforces every other major study -- from Columbia University, IHS, ICF, Brookings, the Aspen Institute, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office and others – all pointing to the same conclusions: Blocking trade in crude oil harms consumers, it harms the economy, and it undermines America’s role as a global leader.
Crude oil exports would put downward pressure on U.S. gasoline prices and, if U.S. crude exports are allowed, U.S. weighted average petroleum product prices could decline as much as 2.3 cents per gallon between 2015–2035. The greatest potential annual decline is 3.8 cents per gallon in 2017. These price decreases for gasoline, heating oil and diesel could save American consumers up to $5.8 billion per year, on average, over the 2015–2035 period.
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 Pennsylvania, serving as a key engine for the state economy – expanding job opportunities and offering the hope of prosperity to individual Pennsylvanians and their families.
The future benefits of energy for Pennsylvania – 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.