In the video interview below from this month’s State of American Energy event, the Center for Industrial Progress’ Alex Epstein talks about America’s historic energy opportunity and the way producing more energy, including oil and natural gas, is key to a better environment:

“When we produce more energy that means cleaner water.  That even means cleaner air. It means better health.  … Energy improves the environment. So when we’re thinking about energy there’s nothing to apologize for, nothing to be afraid of. The only thing to be afraid of, the only risk, is in not producing energy.”

Check out the video:

Another video interview from the State of American Energy event earlier this month in Washington, D.C. Here, Chevron’s Dan Fager talks about the pillars of sound, pro-growth energy policy – new access to U.S. oil and natural gas resources, common-sense regulation and tax policies that encourage new energy investment instead of discouraging it:

“What we shouldn’t do is impose punitive tax increases on the industry. If you want to target tax increases that will result in less investment and less jobs, that’s a negative that will result in fewer of those (energy) developments.”

The video:

As policymakers consider who will be the primary driver of America’s future energy development and innovation – Washington or the private sector – consider:

• Oil and natural gas supplied 62 percent of the energy America needed in 2011 – and is projected by government to supply nearly 60 percent of U.S. energy demand in 2040.
• The oil and natural gas industry provided $545 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011.
• In just unconventional resources (shale and other tight rock), industry is expected to invest more than $5.1 trillion in cumulative capital expenditures by 2035. The industry could add 1.3 million new jobs in this sector by 2020 for a total of 3 million jobs supported – growing to 3.5 million jobs by 2035.
• Since 2000, the oil and natural gas industry has invested nearl... more »

More video interviews from the recent State of American Energy event in Washington, D.C. In this clip Devon’s Richard Sawaya and Paula Jackson, interim president and CEO of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, talk about energy development under pro-growth policies as a dynamic economic engine. Jackson:

“If you don’t think energy is a driver for the economy, go to a place where they don’t have access to energy and see what that looks like.”

The video:

Words matter. But actions matter more, and the Interior Department’s final five-year offshore oil and natural gas leasing plan shows that while the administration trumpets an all-of-the-above energy approach, it falls short of providing the bold leadership needed to fully deploy our country’s ample resources.

You can read Interior’s statement on the plan here. Basically, Secretary Ken Salazar says the strategy includes areas with the “highest-known resource potential.” Sounds good, but it took industry exploration for those areas to gain that designation. Only through exploration can we learn the resource potential of other areas. Loudly, misguidedly, the administration is saying “no” to that.

Its plan omits areas off both coasts and in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico that are believed to... more »