The Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars released a study today examining federal subsidies (direct subsidies, tax preferences and loan guarantees) to traditional fossil fuels and renewables.

In response, however, I would like to point out that assertions that oil and natural gas companies receive subsidies through programs like the Highway Trust Fund, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are ludicrous. This study is an irresponsible rendition based on a contorted recycling of government data that should never be used to craft national policy - especially a tax increase on the oil and natural gas industry that would raise energy costs and kill jobs.

Do the authors mean to suggest that LIHEAP, which... more »

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study released today found that the U.S. oil and natural gas industry supports more than 9 million American jobs and makes significant economic contributions as an employer and purchaser of American goods and services.

The study--"The Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the U.S. Economy: Employment, Labor Income and Value Added"--notes that the industry's total value-added economic contribution in 2007 was more than $1 trillion, or 7.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

"The economic impact of the oil and natural gas industry reaches all 50 states and the District of Columbia," PwC said in the report commissioned by API. And among the states most affected by the industry: Texas, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New York, Penns... more »