The village of Mansfield in Tioga County, Penn., describes itself as a "quaint, Victorian town lined with cozy cafes, antique shops, and farmers' markets...nestled in the picturesque mountains of North Central Pennsylvania." Its name is derived from Asa Mann, who cleared the forest on his estate and laid out the town on "Mann's field" in 1804.

Today, Mansfield is the beneficiary of economic opportunities provided by the development of the Marcellus Shale formation - a rich source of natural gas that is said to be a game-changer for U.S. energy supplies, and for the people of Mansfield as well.

Census figures in 2000 noted that more than 26 percent of Mansfield's residents had incomes below the poverty line. Furthermore, during the recession, the area's unemployment rate soared to a high o... more »

(Editor's note: This Op-Ed from API President and CEO Jack Gerard was published in the Houston Chronicle, August 19, 2010.)

After taking a series of potshots at the American Petroleum Institute in his Sunday column ("Big Oil has it backward," Page D1), Loren Steffy closes with: "We need to proceed cautiously with new drilling and move quickly to draft new regulations that are broad and flexible enough to raise drilling standards without stifling a vital energy source."

We couldn't have said it better, which makes us wonder why he felt the need to excoriate API and its members. His portrait of our industry after the Deepwater Horizon incident ignores the oil and gas industry's quick and public recognition that improvements in offshore operations were necessary. He overlooks the industry's i... more »

On Tuesday, yet another voice spoke out against the proposed climate legislation under consideration in Congress. This time it was Margo Thorning, senior vice president and chief economist at the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), speaking before the Senate Finance Committee.

In her testimony, Thorning referenced the findings of a recent ACCF/National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) study that found the House's version of the climate bill would:

• Reduce total U.S. employment (net of new jobs created in green industries) by between 1,790,000 to 2,440,000 jobs in 2030. Manufacturing is hard hit, absorbing between 59 to 66 percent of job losses over the 2012-2030 period; and
• Lower GDP by up to 2.4 percent relative to the baseline forecast in 2030.

Additionally, Thorning speci... more »

Did you know that President Obama's 2010 budget proposal calls for more than $80 billion in new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry? If the budget is approved by Congress, these new energy taxes could have a negative impact on virtually everyone in the United States.

Taxes raise the cost of doing business, discourage investment in future energy supplies, threaten jobs and likely lead to higher costs for consumers. And despite claims of the industry's critics, the oil and natural gas industry does not receive "subsidies." Efforts to label certain tax provisions as subsidies misrepresent the established policy of the U.S. tax system. And the Treasury Department's assertion that the government's tax policy encourages the overproduction of oil and natural gas is ludicrous.

Here's a thumb... more »