As befitting a day when, for the president, political interest trumped the national interest, he opened his 2012 campaign advertising with a commercial touting – wait for it – his energy accomplishments. And they say irony is dead. The commercial links to a webpage trumpeting the president “Boosting Domestic Energy Production.”

While it is great that the president recognizes Americans’ overwhelming support for increased domestic oil and natural gas production, any gains made in the past few years have happened not because of the president’s policies, but in spite of them. Consider this: The area of energy production the president has the most control over is drilling on federal lands.  In a study we released yesterday, this is what boosting domestic energy production looks like in the... more »

Policies have consequences – in the graphic below from API’s 2012 State of American Energy report, the consequences of the 2010 Gulf deepwater drilling moratorium are manifest: more than $21 billion in investment dollars lost and the departure of drilling equipment to other, more hospitable, venues.

More detail from the report:
• 11 drilling rigs, representing 14 projects had left the Gulf of Mexico since April 2010.
• 91,000 jobs lost as a result of the Gulf moratorium.
• An estimated $18.3 billion of previously planned capital and operating expenditures didn’t occur in 2010 and 2011.
• Gulf oil production is projected by the Energy Information Administration to be down 12 percent in 2012 over 2010.

Those are stark numbers that reflect what happens when policy blocks and/or d... more »

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will take up the Waxman-Markey bill aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While the oil and natural gas industry endorses the bill's goal of protecting the environment, this bill should be rejected. Simply stated, the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation will cost Americans billions of dollars, kill jobs and will not deliver the environmental benefits promised.

In anticipation of the upcoming House vote, I sent a letter to Congress urging the members to set the bill aside and take the time necessary to get this legislation right.

API and its member companies are committed to working with Congress to produce climate change legislation, but not at the expense of the American consumer and the economy.

For more, read the full letter to Con... more »