Back in February, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that he was extending the public comment period for the Draft Proposed Program on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy development. The comment period ends right around the corner--September 21, 2009--and at this time the Minerals Management Service (MMS) will analyze comments and make recommendations.

To put the issue into perspective, Doug Morris, API's Director of Upstream and Industry Operations, said in yesterday's House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee meeting:

"OCS oil and natural gas production plays a key role in supplying the energy our nation needs. These areas provide more than 27% of our domestic oil production and 15% of our gas."

Our nation's vast offshore oil and natural gas resources could be produced safely to put our nation's economy back on its feet. In fact, as I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, a new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study found that currently, the U.S. oil and natural gas industry:

• Supports more than 9 million American jobs; and

• Contributes more than $1 trillion to the national economy, or 7.5 percent GDP.

At a time when the industry is actually responsible for creating more jobs and generating more revenue to the economy, increased access to our resources could generate thousands of new, well-paying jobs, $1.7 trillion in revenues and greater energy security.

So what can you do? Support access to domestic oil and natural gas.

1. Visit the Action Center and urge Congress and MMS to expand access to offshore resources.

2. Go directly to MMS' Web site and tell them to put America's energy to work for Americans.

We have the opportunity to open resource-rich areas to exploration and production in a timely manner. Let's urge MMS and Congress to get it right.